James Mackay aims to end his tenure as captain by leading Eastbourne to cup final glory.

Eastbourne will meet South Saxons in the Sussex Plate final at Lewes on April 26 after both came through potentially tricky semi-finals with flying colours.

Mackay is stepping down after five years as skipper and is hoping to go out on a high.

He said: "It is quite a long time since we won anything. The last thing we won was when we got promoted from the old Sussex League six or seven years ago.

"It will be a nice way to finish off for me."

Eastbourne beat hosts Crowborough 7-2 but it was not as one-sided as the scoreline suggests.

Goals from Dave Morgan and Dan Hill put Eastbourne 2-0 ahead but Crowborough pulled one back before half time when Ben Churchward scored from a short corner.

Will Bryant restored the two-goal advantage early in the second half but Borough responded once again through Ian Brown.

It remained that way until late on when Hill scored again with his 28th goal of the season and further efforts followed from Nick Corbett, Bryant and Morgan.

Mackay said: "It was quite tight but in the last 20 minutes our fitness paid off. We are looking forward to meeting Saxons. We have beaten them twice in the league and we will certainly be confident for that one."

Crowborough skipper Phil Newington said: "There was probably only a goal in it with ten minutes to go. It was a see-saw game of hockey.

"If we had got on level terms the momentum would have swung to us and we would have gone on to win it.

"Overall Eastbourne deserved to edge it but they probably deserved to win 4-3 or 3-2 rather than 7-2."

South Saxons had double reason to celebrate.

A 7-3 win against Penguin took them through to the Plate final while news also came through that they would not be relegated from Kent/Sussex division one.

Despite finishing second from bottom, it was confirmed over the weekend that only one team will be relegated.

Skipper George Deaves said: "It is fantastic for the club. It means we can carry on with a decent level of hockey for another season. It also means we can keep hold of the players we have been bringing along."

Deaves has been confirmed as skipper for next year but before then he is looking forward to the cup final.

He said: "We played them a few weeks ago and they beat us 2-0 but with both the goals they scored a bit of luck contributed towards them."

Saxons could have come unstuck against Penguin, who finished runners-up in the premier division of the Sussex Open League, but they held their nerve to win 7-3.

Des Smith put Saxons ahead with a penalty flick and Jeremy Bunday made it 2-0 but Penguin pulled a goal back through Dave Matthews.

In the second half further goals for Saxons came from Smith, Pat Cornish, Gavin Cloud, Richard Harvey and Danny Burnett but Will Aldous twice set up Stephan Wilkinson for a brace of goals which left the score 5-3 at one stage.

Penguin manager Mark Stuart-Thompson said: "It took us too long to get to the pace of the game and, although I can understand why that was, it's still disappointing that it happened."