Even before the cross country season has started there has been a change of venue for the Sussex veterans cross-country championships.

Further work by Southern Water has ruled the Hastings club at Bexhill Down out of action in December and another venue is being sort.

Next weekend the first of the major road relays are being held when the South of England six-stage men's championships and four- stage veterans events are being held.

Success in recent years has come in the over-40 men's race where the Brighton and Hove team have rarely been out of the medals in the past decade.

Last year, without Nigel Gates, they were placed second after they lost their club captain to the over-50 age group race.

This helped the Brighton and Hove team to record their first ever Sussex victory in the over-50 race and they will be aiming to retain their title this year.

Nigel is hoping that his recovery from an Achilles tendon problem earlier in the year will allow him to return to racing.

In the senior men's event Phoenix finished 13th and Crawley 14th to both gain qualification for the National six stage championship in a month's time.

Following a fine track season Joel Kidger, of Crawley, is looking for some sharp racing on the roads while Gavin Thompson, who lost most of the track season through injury, is now back in action and going well in training.

Like Joel, Louis Jones has had some good track performances this summer, but it is probably over the road and cross-country that we have seen the best of Louis.

Since last winter Crawley have added Ed Prickett to their squad. Ed lives just over the border in Surrey so will not be eligible for Sussex Championship events,, but he is eligible for area and national team events.

Running for the Surrey at the All England Schools championships in July, Ed won the senior boys 3,000m title in 8min. 20.62sec, which is some ten second faster than any Sussex athlete achieved last season while fellow Surrey athlete Paul Rodgers, who turned in some fine runs for Crawley's British League team in the summer, is also likely to stiffen the Crawley squad.

Phoenix will be spearheaded by Patrick Davoren, the fastest Sussex 5,000 metre runner on the track last season, former Sussex 10,000 metre track champion Geoff Hill and, of course, Tom Naylor.