Brighton have been urged not to give up the ghost after Lewes blew a huge hole in their promotion bid.

Two early tries helped Lewes win 19-16 at the Stanley Turner Ground to virtually ensure their survival in London Three South East.

Brighton meanwhile now face an uphill task to finish in second place, which would clinch a promotion play-off.

They were always struggling after Sean Taylor and Liam Craig-Davies had scored early tries as Lewes span the ball wide to great effect.

Dave Tyrrell's conversion stretched the lead but it was back to 12-10 when James Wall and Andy Pinnock scored Brighton's two tries.

Lewes responded just before the break when scrum half Matt Sole darted over following a ruck and Tyrrell again added the extras.

Mark Gibb kicked two second half penalties for the visitors but their skipper Mark Jenkins said: "We have got six games to go now and none will be particularly easy. We can either do what East Grinstead did last year and give up the ghost or we can knuckle down and see how high we can finish."

Lewes's win was bad news for two other Sussex sides who continue to struggle.

Eastbourne went down 34-10 at home to Dartfordians although there was the consolation of seeing Paul Newell round off his welcome return from injury with a try.

Spencer Pullinger also scored but Eastbourne were already 20 points down at half-time.

The greater disappointment was felt at East Grinstead, who went down 7-5 to Tonbridge Juddian in a game they could have won.

Justin Stripp claimed a pushover try with 20 minutes to go but Gs suffered from their lack of a goalkicker.

The London Four South East title race is becoming increasingly interesting after mixed fortunes for two West Sussex clubs.

Leaders Chichester went down 6-0 at Folkestone and are being rapidly caught by Bognor, who were 15-11 winners at Heathfield.

Bognor are now fancying their chances of taking top spot but skipper Karl Flynn admitted they rode their luck in their first outing for five weeks.

He said: "We couldn't take any positives apart from the result. We got the two points but I don't know how. We will need to improve on that performance."

Bognor did at least conjure two well taken tries, the first finished off by Darren Brown to give them an 8-3 interval lead after Andy Shipp and Lewis Beale traded penalties. Beale's decision to run a penalty on halfway led to Damien Pestell crossing for Heathfield and the scores remained tied until the last ten minutes.

A Beale drop goal from the 22 edged Heathfield in front but Luke Sullivan came up with a crucial try for Bognor and Shipp converted.

Crawley also suffered late disappointment as they went down 22-12 at home to Old Dunstonians.

Luke Denham, outstanding in the front row, scored Crawley's first try, converted by John Doyle, and they stretched their lead to 12-3 on 58 minutes when Kelvin Cartwright rounded off a super move.

Dunstonians clawed back seven points just five minutes later and two quick tries late on gave them the points.

Hove did not even have the consolation of a decent performance as they lost 6-3 at Beccehamians. Rob Kift fired them into a half-time lead but they lost to two penalties, the second from halfway with the last kick of the game.

Skipper Richard Jackson said: "We must have knocked the ball on 15 times and given away 30 penalties."

A SINGLE Raynn Bruce try was enough to keep Worthing ahead of their pursuers at the top of London Two South.

The South African prop has made a habit of scoring useful tries this season and he was at it again in the 10-0 win at Old Midwhitgiftians.

Ben Coulson converted to go with his 14th-minute penalty.