Sussex's most resplendent golden oldie must surely be Harold Deane.

In winning the county veterans championship for the third time he went round Piltdown in a one under par 68 at the age of 72 when his outward nine holes required only 29 strokes.

That is a record for Piltdown although when Dick Carroll (Worthing) won the event last year he signed for a 66.

This time Deane has created two notable firsts. His winning margin of seven shots is new and that 29 has put Piltdown records on the shelf starting as it did with an eagle two when holing his second shot with an eight iron.

He followed-up with the first of five birdies on the outward half. Harold's putter worked splendidly, a 12-footer going down for a birdie at the fourth and a slightly shorter effort finding the hole for another at the sixth. At the eighth he chipped in from 20ft and was a similar distance off the ninth green when down went birdie No 5.

Coming back in 39 was an anti-climax as Harold explained: "I missed two fairly short wedges at 11 and 12 and double-bogied the 13 and then went par, par and my drive at the 16th landed in a divot and I took five at the 17th and finished with a par."

Four years ago Harold had both hips done and both he and fellow septuagenarian Bob Deakin played important parts in getting Royal Ashdown Forest to the final of the Davies and Tate Trophy.

Harold was Sussex Veterans champion in 1993 and 94 with scores of 78 and 72 respectively. In 1992 he tied with Gerry Batt-Rawden on 71 only to lose the play-off.

After winning at Piltdown, where he was off 5.5, Harold's handicap is cut to 4.9. There cannot be many 72 year-olds in the country able to bring a course to its knees in the way Harold set about Piltdown.