Brighton pocketed the best-ever result by a Sussex team in the national inter-league championships.

They won five matches in an inspired run to the semi-finals at Great Yarmouth before being beaten by Trent Trophies, the most successful team in the event for the last decade.

The Brighton display, led in great style by Morray Dolan, beat their previous best effort when they reached the last eight four years ago.

Dolan was unbeaten in four matches and finished with a record of ten wins in 12 games, while Damian Campsey and Darren Welfare won eight out of 12 and Jon Sanders and John Steadman seven out of 12.

Brighton started with wins over Lowestoft B and Durham side Shildon in the round-robin stage to go into the first round proper.

Dolan, Welfare, Sanders and Paul Nicholas won both their games in the 10-8 win over Lowestoft B, while Campsey and Paul McNeil scored two wins as Brighton beat Shildon 9-6.

Brighton began the knock-out stages by beating Kettering 10-7, with Dolan, Welfare and Doug Howard winning two out of two.

Brighton, who were behind at some time or another in all their matches, then had to dig deep against Walsall A before winning 10-8.

Down 5-4 and 7-5, Brighton had to pull out all the stops to win five of the last six games to go into the quarter-finals, with Dolan and McNeil unbeaten and Campsey taking the de-cider.

The next match against Walsall Select was all square at 5-5, but a run of four wins by Welfare, Dolan, Pete Ashman and McNeil put Brighton on course for the semi-finals. Dolan and John Steadman, who won the clincher, had two out of two.

With Brighton battling for a place in the final, Sanders and Ashman were both unlucky to lose to England A team men Gareth Potts and Lee Kendall, England captain Kendall in particular winning with an outrageous fluke.

Brighton went 7-2 down before clawing their way back into contention by winning four of the next six games, but it was not enough.

Trent Trophies eventually went through 10-6, with Camp-sey Brighton's best player with two wins.

The Brighton team picked up £1,200, while Trent Trophies went on to win the title by beating Lancashire side Alloas in a play-off after the teams had finished level at 9-9 in the final.

The other Sussex teams in the competition all went out at the qualifying stage.

Brighton B lost 11-7 to Not-tingham team Friar Tuck and 10-8 to Lowestoft A, Crawley were beaten 10-6 by Walsall A, and Littlehampton lost 10-8 to PJ's Birmingham and 16-2 to Morley International, of Leeds, who included four profession-als.

Andreas Emmanuel was unbeaten in four games for Brighton B, while Derek Bar-nes also won four out of four for Crawley.