Helen Morton took advantage of a managerial mix-up to help Horsham Blue Star get off to a flying start in the Southern Women's League.

The South of England heptathlon champion was expected to have her work cut out as she came face to face with Great Britain international Julia Bennett at Kingsmeadow on Saturday.

Cardinal Newman teacher Bennett should have cleaned up for her club Epsom and Ewell in the high jump after recently competing at the Commonwealth Games in the event.

But Epsom's new team manager did not realise the athlete from Haywards Heath was ranked No. 1 in the UK at high jump last year and instead asked her to throw the hammer and shot putt.

In Bennett's absence Morton went on to win the high jump with a new personal best clearance of 1.61m and also triumphed in the 100m hurdles - another event Bennett excels at - in 15.3sec.

Horsham manager Chris Lee said: "We were a bit surprised when Julia did not do the high jump. The only person who didn't seem to know she was an international in the event was the Epsom team manager and nobody thought to tell him."

Despite the mistake Epsom still won the match with 198 points but Horsham came a strong second with 180.5 to claim seventh place in division two.

Morton racked up more points with second places in the long jump and 200m while Zoe Parsons was another to profit from the Bennett factor.

Parsons had not competed for Blue Star for more than four years but made a huge impact on her return as she won a ding-dong battle with Bennett in the hammer to set a new club record of 35.51m.

Hannah James won the discus with an impressive throw of 34.93m while there were victories in the junior ranks for Emily Taylor (200m), Emily Eastland (1,500m), Chloe Loader (high jump) and Jenny Grant.

Lee added: "We had a depleted team so it was good performance to score as well as we did. If we can get our best athletes out for the majority of matches there is no reason why we can't score around 200 points regularly and that would give us a good chance of promotion."

Crawley have also set their sights on a place in division one as they shrugged off the absence of international middle distance quartet Danielle Christmas, Hannah Brooks, Emily Goodall and Charlotte Best to finish second behind the hosts at Milton Keynes.

New team manager Fiona Clark led by example with victory in the 3,000m and followed it up by finishing in a dead heat for first place in the 1,500m as Crawley, who were relegated last year, chalked up a healthy total of 170 points to be just behind Horsham in the table.

Clark said: "Last time we were in this division we won it and although I don't think we'll repeat that I'm confident we can go up."

Claire Smithson missed out on breaking her own Sussex record for the discus by just 10cm as an inexperienced Brighton and Hove City came fourth with 150 points behind runners-up Hastings (160pts) in the other match at Kingsmeadow.

Smithson showed she is still on form after coming eighth in the Commonwealth Games by throwing the discus 55.85m and also winning the shot putt.

Worthing and District Harriers found the going tough following promotion last year as they could only manage third place in their home match.

With internationals Racheal Ogden and Jo Davison missing Worthing picked up just 132 points in a match won by Kingston.

Kelly Denyer gave the home side something to cheer with victory in the 100m while there were also wins for Phillipa Aukett (400m) and Caroline Garrett (javelin).