The young brigade have got Hove thinking of promotion after a great start to the season.

But just don't start calling it The Tom and Adam Show.

A squad featuring 12 products of their renowned youth set-up beat fellow pacesetters Old Elthamians 24-10 to go top of London Four South East on points difference.

Tom le Mehaute and Adam Phillips scored all the points, hence the in-joke that it was all about those two players.

Jamie Angus, Hove's players' manager, said: "That's just a bit of banter within the club.

"There's a lot more to it than that. The key factor is the pace we play the game at.

"You can see the youngsters maturing all the time. Last year was their first full season together and they keep on progressing.

"We are extremely pleased. Our aim is to get promotion and we fancy a nice cup run as well."

Le Mehaute's pace was in evidence with two scorching finishes as Hove came from 10-8 down at the break.

Phillips added three penalties to his individual first-half try as Elthamians suffered two sin-binnings.

Eastbourne also overturned a deficit as they scored their first win of the season.

They trailed Bromley 11-7 early in the second half but scored four tries down the slope through new wing Karl Schwick (2), Matt Pysden and Alex Bailey.

Eastbourne could not have started the game more brightly as Gavin Partridge scored an interception try which Adam Tennant converted.

Tennant kicked two more conversions as a young side took charge.

East Grinstead got the dream start of an early score from James Smith following a rolling maul but still lost 31-13 at Dover.

Matt Hoare added a conversion and two penalties but Dover had the edge in the backs, scoring two late tries to pull away.

Horsham continue to struggle. Their 24-10 home defeat to Betteshanger leaves them bottom of the table.

Haywards Heath were accused of playing without passion as they suffered defeat in London One. The re-vamped Heath line-up lost 20-7 at Barnes having been 20 points adrift at the break.

Coach Ian Davies admitted: "We were worse than awful. We didn't perform in the first half.

"The second was better but we are still getting no forward momentum and that makes it difficult for us to attack.

"We were devoid of passion in the first half, which was surprising."

Lee 'Outhouma had a first-half nightmare.

He was in the sin bin for a late tackle when the hosts scored one of their tries, then returned to slice a kick which led to another score right on half-time.

Heath responded with a second-half score from Dan Morath, in support of Neil McGovern and Alex Meredith, which Kurt Morath converted.

But the Sussex side were on the wrong end of a 24-4 penalty count and Davies admitted: "We had a few arguments with the ref. We were just stupid and kept giving away the same type of penalties."