WORTHING moved out of the bottom two in hockey's Kent and Sussex Regional League with a thumping 6-2 defeat of fellow strugglers Sevenoaks.

The match was effectively over by half time as Worthing raced into a 5-0 lead.

John Massie's strike from a penalty corner opened the scoring, skipper Mark Duncan added a second, Alex Ballamy deflected in a third and youngster Dan Lock converted two superb flicks following open play moves.

Simon Holloway touched home the sixth early in the second half and, although the visitors pulled back two from penalty corners towards the end, the result was emphatic.

Ballamy said: "We have been playing better than last year but have been drawing or losing the games. All we needed was a little luck to get the result we did on Saturday."

Mid Sussex continued their excellent pre-Christmas form with a 6-4 win over Ashford that was more convincing than the scoreline suggests.

Phil Middleton scored a hat-trick, brother Andy chipped in with two and Simon Hobden got the other. The only scare for Mid Sussex came when they relinquished an early lead to trail 2-1 midway through the first half.

Crawley enjoyed an excellent 3-2 success away to Tulse Hill.

Terry Higgs scored from a short corner in the first minute of the game to extend his league goals tally to 16 in 12 matches.

Crawley then lost Dan Lucas with a sprained ankle and the hosts took advantage by reshuffling themselves and going 2-1 ahead with two goals in five minutes.

But Stuart Greenwood levelled before half time, converting the eighth short corner of the half, and Andy Wright grabbed the winner from open play with 15 minutes left.

Skipper Steve Farley said: "This was only our second win in seven games, so I am hoping that we have started the second half of the season as we mean to go on."

Richard Lowe got Horsham's consolation in a 2-1 defeat at BBHC, while Middleton & Bognor lost 3-1 at home to Marden Russets.

Skipper Mark Pacey had put M&B ahead, but manager Roger Harvey explained: "We were all over them in the first half and had so many chances from short corners, but we could not score more than one.

"In the second half we got upset with the umpires, lost our rag and lost the game."

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