There were mixed fortunes for Sussex teams in the South of England Six-stage Road Relays at the Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot.

Phoenix recorded their highest ever placing and qualified for the National Championships at Birmingham.

But Brighton and Hove and Crawley were under-strength and finished well down the field in the senior men's race.

Brighton did win bronze in the over-50 age group and were sixth in the over-40 age group, even without the services of Nigel Gates.

Crawley's Kevin Holland led the Sussex challenge on the first of the six 6km legs in the senior race and his lap time of 18min.42sec was the fastest by a Sussex runner.

He finished in 11th, two places ahead of Patrick Davoren (Phoenix), whose 18min.50sec. was the second best by a Sussex runner.

Crawley still had the upper hand after the second leg when the in-form Paul Rodgers moved up to sixth place in 19min.02sec while Darryl Hards (Phoenix) also picked up a couple of places to finish 11th.

On the third lap there was a great battle between Crawley's Sami Awd and Neil Boniface (Phoenix) with Boniface just having the edge to overhaul Crawley and finish tenth.

Even after the fourth leg there was little to choose between the leading Sussex teams as Geoff Hill (Phoenix) held tenth spot but Ala Awd dropped to 12th.

From then on, Phoenix were out on their own as far as Sussex clubs were concerned and held tenth place through Tom Naylor and Tom Grady as Crawley slipped out of the picture.

Phoenix team manager Paul Collicut said: "This was our best run ever in this event. We were at full strength but I am hoping that come the National Championships at the end of the month we could be running a little better and maybe get a place in the top 20, as we did two years ago."

Brighton and Hove had made a steady start and looked set for a respectable placing. Unfortunately Mike Buss did not arrive in time because his car broke down so an unfit Richard Carter, who was only watching, jogged around the final leg and dropped back to 24th place.

After such a fine start, the Crawley team also had to fill in on the last two legs and slipped down the field to finish 25th out of a field of nearly 100 teams.

For only the second time in the last ten years the Brighton and Hove over-40 team, minus the still injured Nigel Gates, missed out on the medals placing sixth, while a strong Crawley quartet were tenth.

Brighton and Hove over-50s finished third in their age group with the evergreen Peter Witcomb running the final leg and clocking 20min.56sec, the third fastest leg in that age group.