West Hove and Lewes will contest the Davies and Tate Trophy final at Crowborough Beacon on September 14.

There was no stopping West Hove at Copthorne when they licked Royal Eastbourne 8-4 to enter the final of the Sussex Inter-Club Matchplay Knockout.

Lewes reached the final for the first time after a tense struggle with Bognor. Lewes went through 6.5-5.5 which made up for losing by the same score at the corresponding stage last year to eventual winners West Sussex.

West Hove, beaten finalists on three successive occasions from 1986, made a strong start and led the foursomes 3-1. But Steve Nielsen, the team captain, admitted the morning results could have gone in favour of the Royal.

After Nielsen and partner Russell Cronin were leaving the 15th green, having beaten Glyn Bateman and James Harper, the following match went Eastbourne's way.

Matt Hepburn and Charles Veasey gave the Royal fresh heart with a 4 & 3 win over Tom Coulson and Mark Pollington while, in the match following them, West Hove's Raoul Ellis and Christian Stevens were three down with four to play.

No wonder Nielsen was twitching. But a brilliant fightback resulted in the West Hove pair beating Jack Hepburn and Mark Packard on the last hole.

West Hove's morale was further improved when Ian Poysden and Gareth Hall achieved a similarly close victory over Steve Clarke and John Beland after being three down early into the back nine.

All flat on the 18th tee, Hall, 15, boomed a 309-yard fairway- splitting drive for Poysden to leave his approach five feet from the flag and the Royal pair conceded.

"After the foursomes it all went click, click, click," said Nielsen.

"Although Coulson played poorly in the morning he turned it round and was brilliant when beating Harper 6 & 4.

"Christian won the first five holes off Veasey including two birdies and went on to win 6 & 4 and when I beat Packard 6 & 5 and we were the fifth pair on the course, the match was over."

Probably the most disappointed Royal player was left-hander Matt Hepburn.

At one stage Cronin was four up on him. But Hepburn fired birdies at 11, 12 and 13. The burst was triggered by pitching-in his third from 40 yards at the 11th. Cronin hung on but Hepburn sank a long birdie putt at 17 to square the thriller.

Disaster struck at the last. Hepburn's second shot finished out of bounds in a flower bed by the clubhouse and Cronin wisely played safe to win one up.

At Mannings Heath, the Waterfall was the scene of Lewes' victory. They recovered from a 2.5-1.5 foursomes deficit to upset dark horses Bognor.

Peter Franklin, the Lewes team manager, singled out the half obtained by Matt Hart, who was dormy two down in his singles against 15-year-old Ollie Turnill.

For the first time in many years, no Hilton family members were in the Lewes side so Franklin gave Trophy debuts to James Morrall and Jon Williams and both came up trumps.

Apart from Hart's vital half, Williams sank a tricky three-footer on the last to finish all square with Darren Longhurst. Lewes' backmarker Lawrie Tremlett played in the middle order instead of leading off and had a tremendous tussle with junior James Bright before winning by one hole.

"This was our third semi-final and we expected it to be tough," said Franklin. "We beat a very good side and the luck was in our favour."

Roy Tidy, Bognor's team captain, was in full agreement. "It was absolutely brilliant and very friendly. One or two of our youngsters were a bit upset but they'll soon get over that and it is a learning curve. We wish Lewes all the best."