Brighton slithered their way into the NPI Cup third round when they beat Hove 22-10 at rainswept Hove Park.

The tie was more even than last season's 53-0 derby rout but Brighton skipper Gary Henderson said: "Hove never looked like winning."

It was so muddy Brighton changed their shirts at the break, by which time they were 19-0 up.

Simon Peters maintained his sequence of tries and Micky Poole and Mark Gibb also got over. Paul Charlton converted two and dropped a second-half goal.

Hove skipper Phil Ward praised his side's second-half effort after they stormed back in the second period.

Michael Walton scored a try and there was a conversion and penalty for Ward, who said; "We've improved enormously.

"We gave Brighton too much respect to start with but we were really determined in the second half and there wasn't much in it."

Chichester skipper Declan Hutchings helped his side beat Crawley 20-10 at Oaklands Park and said: "It was an outstanding performance. We played with a lot of passion and verve."

Steve Bradford celebrated his 30th birthday by touching down and Stuart Brandon's late interception score proved the clincher.

Jamie Donaldson was outstanding with the boot, both tactically and off the tee as he slotted two conversions and two penalties.

Richard Billings scored the Crawley try on his first outing of the season and Phil Howe kicked a conversion and penalty, but the visitors were disappointed with their performance.

Eastbourne played up the slope and against the elements in the first half at home to Folkestone but still rattled up 29 unanswered points.

They ended up 34-0 winners, maintaining their perfect start to the season, but victory was marred by a broken foot for hooker Paul Smart, who was one of the try scorers.

No.8 Andy Hebron struck twice, as did Matt Allcorne, and Jon Groenen added a try and two conversions.

Bognor were also handed an injury setback along with their ticket into the third round as lock Steve Dove broke a wrist in the 28-8 home win over Uckfield.

He faces a two month lay-off.

Full back Andy Shipp dominated the scoring with two tries, a conversion and two penalties.

No.8 Karl Flynn scored from a lineout and Steve Woolcombe marked his late call-up on the wing by scoring a try and then being sin-binned for killing the ball.