If ever the world of angry, politically-charged comedy had a title bout, these two would be main contenders.

In the red corner stood Rob Newman, former student favourite from his days as one quarter of cult comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

While in the blue - with liberal use of expletives ensuring it really was blue - was Mark Thomas, the heavyweight in both girth and clout as the most recent of the pair to enjoy a stint on television.

First to spar with the audience was Newman, who has come a long way from trading juvenile insults with David Baddiel.

Now active in the global justice movement, he has spent years touring countries savaged by the domination of capitalism.

Like a satirical sponge, Newman has soaked up all the tragic ironies he has seen and poured them out on stage with wit, energy and a rather unexpected talent for mimicry and ukelele playing.

Although he squeezed in many good gags from the recent war on Iraq, Newman has a Simon Schama-esque knowledge of recent political history and he took great delight in lampooning both British and American foreign policy.

Some of the things he said really did shock and awe - how the CIA published its own step-by-step guide to overthrowing a government (being late for work is a serious revolutionary tactic, apparently) and the revelation that Bob Dylan now makes a mint from doing corporate gigs to a select audience.

If Newman was the thinking pugilist of the night, Thomas bounded on stage with a street-fighter's aggression.

His material was almost all about Gulf War Two and he took great delight in taking an axe to the shaky support for US and British intervention.

The Newman/Thomas match up was promoted by Schnews - the Brighton-based direct action, free newsletter.

Special mention must go to their Beyond TV clips which had the audience in stitches even when no one was on stage, including a hilarious montage of George W Bush and Tony Blair singing Electric Six's Gay Bar to each other.

With neither comic pulling any punches, this was a great match from start to finish. Final score? A draw on points.