Sussex included three rinks of players from the home club when they met Middlesex Tourists at Eastbourne. But they struggled to make home advantage tell.

John Bennett, Frank Connolly, Lloyd Oliver and Keith Hopkins were 17-7 down at ten ends. Worse was to follow with 5,6,4,2,4 putting them 38-7 down at 15 ends and they lost 46-13.

Sussex suffered an overall defeat of 152-105.

Another Eastbourne rink of Geoff Sutton, Ted Gibson, Bob Stratford and Mick Sparkes dropped 5,5,2,3,3 starting on the sixth end to trail 21-4. They lost 31-11 to Alan Syrett.

Some pride for Eastbourne was redeemed by Alan Kemp, Derek Fermor, John Hutchinson and Tony Willson. They finished 3,4,3 to win 25-17 over D. Knight. That made them top rink for Sussex.

Alan Carter (Langney Sports), Jim Petitt (Adur), Derek Johnson (Worthing) and Mike Field (Adur) 25-18 against Brian Hearn.

County president Tom Riley (Eastbourne), John Bates (Denton Island), Norman Kennard (Grattons) and Derek Dyer (Eastbourne) lost 20-13 to R. Dobson.

Don Bunday (Horsham), David Mahoney (Worthing Pavilion), Tony Goodwin (Gullivers) and Jerry Dean (Arun) lost by just 20-18 to E. Clarke.

The Sussex CBA President's tourists had mixed fortunes in Nottinghamshire. The party was led by Tom Riley (Eastbourne) and organised by George Jerram (Preston).

The tourists acquitted themselves well on greens similar in pace to those in Sussex but, on the lightning fast greens at South Forest, Brewash and Nottingham, they could not cope.

The opening seven rink match against Newark was only lost 130-128. Over six rinks at South Forest the tourists went down 141-76 and lost 157-113 over seven rinks to the Nottinghamshire CIBA at Nottingham.

In the fourth game at Erewash over seven rinks Sussex lost 154-99, they lost 127-112 against Rushcliffe over six rinks and finished the tour with a 121-105 win against Stamford.

Frank Connolly (Eastbourne) was top player, finishing with a personal plus of 13 shots.