Lewes made it to their fourth successive County Cup final by winning their Pool on Sunday at the Southdown Club. The hosts, South Saxons and Worthing were the three sides competing for a place in the final with matches of two twenty minute halves.

Lewes played the strong Worthing side first and struggled for a while before, from Andy Green's pass, Paul Spruce fed Martyn Stillman who ran on, rounded the goalkeeper and scored with a skilful reverse stick strike. This lead was doubled from a penalty corner when Will Champness slipped the ball to Green who scored to make it 2-0. Lewes needed the crucial third goal in the second half but could not get it and Chris Marchant saw his powerful flick well saved by the goalkeeper. Successive penalty corners came to nothing and Worthing came back into the match and the hosts’ goalkeeper Chris Sharpe made some good saves as Lewes came under pressure. With five minutes left Worthing scored from a penalty corner and despite another penalty corner on the final whistle Lewes survived to win narrowly 2-1.

With a win against South Saxons guaranteeing them a place in the final Lewes started slowly after their earlier match and it took some good interceptions from defenders Chris Picken and Hugo Youngman to wake the side up. After ten minutes Champness and Green combined again from a penalty corner to open the scoring and then skipper Rob Heinzl, making a welcome return to the side after injury, set up Mike Fuller who struck home from the top of the circle to make it 2-0 at half time. Again the crucial third goal did not arrive early in the second half until finally Billy Smart started the move from halfway and Marchant finished well with an accurate flick to make it 3-0. Lewes could have made it four in the closing stages but Steve Fuller was denied when he volleyed a hard cross towards the top corner of the goal only for the Saxons goalkeeper to save well. The County finals will be over the weekend of 23/24 April at the Southdown Club.

Report by Paul Spruce