It has been a long road back but resurgent Horsham have at last got plenty to cheer.

The Coolhurst club powered into the fourth round of the National Intermediate Cup with a 46-3 thrashing of visitors Park House.

They will be joined in Thursday's draw by Eastbourne, East Grinstead and Chichester.

It is not too long ago that Horsham were competing in the Pilkington Cup and enjoying life in the upper reaches of London Two South.

Haywards Heath took over the role of county standard bearers as Horsham plummeted through the divisions, but they are now top of Sussex One and enjoying a cup run.

Skipper Guy Hannell said: "It's great to be unbeaten. We just want to keep it going. Hopefully the draw will be kind to us and we will give it 100 per cent. You can't ask for more."

The present Horsham team does not yet stand comparison with the side of the mid-Nineties, some of whom were running in tries for the veterans XV against Heathfield while Saturday's cup tie was taking place on the next pitch.

Hannell's men, with flanker Rob Clegg outstanding, had enough firepower to see off Park House, though it took them time to get going. The first glimpse of fluent back play was rewarded as fullback Fraser Tussler took Pete Mason's scoring pass.

Richard Billings struck on 37 minutes from a slick midfield scissors with outside half Robert Wright, who himself carved through after the re-start.

Carl Harman, Jamie Bartie, Billings, Tussler and replacement scrum half Dougie Wright added tries. Billings kicked two conversions and Mason one.

Hannell added: "It was a good display of patient rugby. They had big forwards who were very energetic in the first half but we broke them down and ran away with it in the last 15-20 minutes."

Chichester were 15-10 winners at Heathfield, the side who beat them 28-0 in the league two weeks earlier.

Chi trailed 10-0 at the break and skipper Ben Polhill admitted: "I thought it could be a repeat performance. But we got a try back with 20 minutes left and the game turned round completely. Now we would love to get Richmond in the next round."

Nigel Turner, superb at No. 8, and Richard Johnson got over for the visitors with Nick Stanton adding a conversion and a penalty. Guy Woods scored a great try for Heath and Bryn Jones kicked a conversion and a penalty but they were frustrated to see scrum half Will Drinkwater have a second half scored ruled out.

East Grinstead scored 24 unanswered points during a purple patch in the second half to win 33-22 at London Two strugglers Sevenoaks. Paul Goodwin (2) and Tim Lucas got their tries.

Veteran Frenchman Arnaud Senebaide slotted two conversions and four penalties as Gs came from 17-9 behind.

Eastbourne took charge going down the slope in the second half as they won 36-15 at home to Kent One outfit Lordswood.

Matt Bremer (2), Jamie Bremer, Thurston Yapp, Spencer Pullinger and Dom Groenen all scored tries with Jamie Bremer taking the kicks.