Varndean can claim to be the driving force in Sussex schools athletics.

Through the Fifties and Sixties, more than half the Sussex athletes who went on to gain international recognition in Great Britain or England teams were former Varndean scholars.

They included names like the late Dick Webb, Roy Cruttenden, Dave Scharer, Angela Birch, Mike Winch, Olympic gold medallist Steve Ovett, Andrew Bristow and Richard Carter.

With such a pedigree it is not surprising the Brighton school have won more All England Schools titles than any other in Sussex with ten to their name while BHASVIC have amassed six titles, the same as Oakmeeds in Burgess Hill.

Three of the Oakmeeds titles have been won by javelin thrower Sam Redd and two by 800 metre runner Simon Eyre, all within the last decade.

Seven of the Varndean winners and five from BHASVIC plus Claire Smithson, who is still in the under-20 age group this year but already competing in senior competition, have survived to compete as seniors which is a pretty good percentage.

This winter's current County Championships have a distinct leaning to the east of the county and three of those champions hailed from just one school.

Normally there is a wide spread and only once has one school claimed three winter senior titles.

That was Varndean's John Bristow, the eldest of three brothers who played such a large part in the Sussex middle distance running in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

Bristow won not only the senior cross-country crown but also the 10km road race and the half-marathon title in 1989.

So far this season, three of the winners attended the Dorothy Stringer High School.

Nicola McDougall set the ball rolling when she was a surprise winner of the county half-marathon title at Barns Green.

Peter Witcomb took the veterans over-50 cross country crown at the Pestalozzi Village near Seddlescombe and, at the turn of the year, Emma Satterly completed the hat-trick when she took the senior women's cross-country title.

Darryl Hards, another former Dorothy Stringer pupil, won the Sussex 10km road race crown. He defends this title at Chichester tomorrow.

McDougall and Satterley are included in the Sussex team to compete in the Inter-counties Cross Country Championships at Nottingham next Saturday.

The event incorporates the World Cross Country Championship trials.

Joanne Hinde (Hastings), who finished second behind Emma in the county event but led the county team home in the South of England Inter-county Championships just before Christmas, is also available to compete.

County bronze medallist Julia Downes has returned to North Florida State University but her Brighton and Hove club mate Julia Armstrong, a former county senior and veterans champion, will be running.

It is hoped, but not yet confirmed, that Crawley's Fiona Clark, who has been showing excellent form this season, will run.

Chichester's Linda Spencer, Julie Heath (Hastings Runners) and Arena 80's Liz Lumber, who will be making her debut for Sussex, complete the line-up.

For the first time for more than 30 years, the top nine finishers in the men's County Championship have all indicated they would like to run but it will be largely a team of first-timers.

Of the nine-man team, only Keith Newton (Brighton and Hove) and Chichester's James Baker have actually competed in the senior race at these championships before so it looks a pretty inexperienced team.