A second win in successive weeks has seen Horsham consolidate their position as early leaders in the Shepherd Neame Sussex Cricket League.

Chichester also en-joyed their second win of the campaign at the expense of last year's champions, Brighton and Hove, who have lost all three of their matches so far.

Hastings, last year's runners-up, have won both matches played so far.

Horsham rattled up 281-8 declared to win their home game with Eeastbourne by 99 runs as their emerging young-sters played a big part in the victory.

Carl Hopkinson hit 64, Alan Law made 53 and Australian David Hussey 50 in their big total, with Andy Winstone taking 4-103 for the visitors.

Sussex youngster Tim Ambrose then hit 75, but it was not enough to pre-vent Horsham winning with five balls to spare, the spin of the young Nash brothers proving the decisive factor.

Slow left-armer Mark took 4-49 and Chris cele-brated his 18th birthday 24 hours earlier by taking 5-55.

Chichester made short work of Brighton and Hove but also found runs hard to come by on their own Priory Park pitch which proved a bowlers' delight.

Brighton were sent crashing to 51 all out as newcomer Matt Sleap took 3-4, Billy Taylor grabbed 2-17 and Chris Wall 2-21.

The home side then owed much to 26 from Daniel Oliver as they reached their victory target at 55-6, Richard Spink taking 4-25 and Andy Sartor 2-19.

The in-form George Campbell, fresh from his triumph for the Sussex Board last week, helped Hastings to 260-4 dec-lared against Haywards Heath as he hit 95. With John Snashall making 65, Tim van Noort 41 and Jason Finch 36, the total proved more than enough despite the efforts of Paul Havell, who grab-bed 2-77.

In the Haywards Heath reply of 208 all out, 19 year-old Steve Kingcome made 93 and skipper Hugo Southwell 52, but van Noort took 5-69 and Mick Glazier 2-37 to take their side to victory.

Crowborough wel-comed back their Paki-stani all-rounder, Naeem Akhtar, and his presence helped seal a six-wicket win against East Grinstead, who made 211-7 declared from 65 overs.

James Chadburn with 85 and former Sussex man Alex Edwards, who struck 42, made the bulk of the runs as Akhtar took 4-39 and Carl Shank-land 3-52.

At 24-2, things hardly looked bright for the home side, but then Nick Wilton hit 58 and Shank-land 35 to right the ship.

Skipper Andy Corn-ford, with 32 not out, and Akhtar, who made an unbeaten 50, then took them to victory at 213-4.

Batting was far from easy on an unreliable pitch at Three Bridges, where visitors Worthing won a low-scoring game by two wickets.

The home side were dismissed for 134 after being put in.

That total owed much to some lower order resis-tance from Steve Brown (23) and Mark Hazleton (21) as Danny Barton took 4-31.

Worthing, in turn, found it tough to score, but Australian Ben Cam-eron hit 30 before skipper John Kaye produced the match-winning innings of 34 not out, despite Hazle-ton taking 4-27.

Report by Tony Millard
Sports@argus-btn.co.uk