Steve Graham bows out of county and club golf tomorrow in his final appearance for Mid Sussex in the Davies and Tate Trophy final against West Sussex at Worthing.

An ideal parting shot would be helping Mid Sussex gain their first Sussex Inter-Club Matchplay knockout title before taking over as secretary-manager of Littlehampton next month.

West Sussex, aiming at a second championship in 19 years, may not be able to field their strongest side. Ian Ritchie was marooned earlier this week in Montreal following the clamp down on flights from North America in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Roy Froud, the West Sussex team manager, said: "I have spoken to Ian in Canada and the position is very unclear. Also there must be a doubt concerning Martin Slumbers who is chief operations officer for Deutche Bank in London and it is feared he has lost a lot of colleagues in New York."

West Sussex's selection will be made from 10 players. In the semi-final they beat Lewes 6.5-5.5 at The Dyke. However, West Sussex's resolve may well be strengthened at being cast in the role of underdogs and Mid Sussex will not make the mistake of underestimating a side good enough to remove all-conquering Worthing in the quarter-finals.

Mid Sussex, unchanged from the eight that knocked out The Dyke 7-5, again sounded chirpy on the eve of a big occasion. Michael Foreman, the team manager, said: "Win or lose, we shall be having a party back at the club."

Graham, 38, has been one of the dominant figures in Sussex golf for many years although he surprisingly never won the county championship, twice being runner-up in 1989 and 1993. His last final appearance was at Worthing when losing at the 21st to Martin Galway.

Called-up four times for the England squad without playing in the full side, Graham cannot be dismissed as a nearly man. On no fewer than five occasions he has topped the Sussex Order of Merit and played county golf at colts and senior level for 20 years.

In taking the Littlehampton job, Graham returns to the club where he started. He later joined Ham Manor and also had a brief spell as a pro when attempting to gain a Tour card.

Mid Sussex: John Newsome, Bruce Anderson, Martin Galway, Steve Graham, Gavin O'Hara, David James, Lee Thomas, Jamie Brough.

West Sussex (from): Jamie Donaldson, David Alderson, Myles Averns (captain), Ian Ritchie, Ralph Kennedy, Julian McCree, Martin Slumbers, Gary Scarfield, Matthew Scaife, Paul Turrell.

Bognor Regis face Ham Manor in the Plate final.