Lewes made hard work of taking county honours as they beat East Grinstead 3-2 in National League division one on Saturday.

With both sides desperate for points, albeit for different reasons, the game was full of incident but poor on quality hockey.

Lewes raced into 2-0 lead inside 16 minutes as first Will Champness scored from a short corner and then Jeremy Boyse doubled the lead from open play after some good work from Carl Wright.

Grinstead reduced the lead when Andrew Medcalf finished off a goalmouth scramble and they drew level early in the second half when Dominic Male converted a penalty corner cleverly won by Ben Payne.

Lewes struggled to reassert control but they went ahead again on 52 minutes when Boyse struck again and they should have added a fourth late on but Ben Hawes sent a penalty flick wide.

The result leaves Lewes still two points off a promotion place while Grinstead look all but doomed at the bottom of the table.

Lewes manager Peter Boyse said: "We have really got to waken ourselves up again if we are to get anything from the better sides we are about to be playing again."

In the Southern Premier, Chichester produced a poor display as they went down 2-0 away to Old Cranleighans.