Worthing's great Davies and Tate Trophy run is over.

Unbeaten in 27 matches, county champions in 1997, 1998 and 2000 as well as Plate winners in 1999, they were beaten at Pulborough where West Sussex won a fascinating quarter-final 7-5.

Joining West Sussex in the last four are Mid Sussex, conquerors of West Hove 7-5, The Dyke, who went through at Royal Ashdown Forest 8.5-3.5, and Lewes, who made no mistake at Pyecombe with a 9.5-2.5 success.

The semi-final pairings match West Sussex against Lewes while Mid Sussex must overcome The Dyke.

The matches will be played at neutral venues to be announced next month.

Worthing's failure to fire on all cylinders when losing the foursomes at Pulborough 3-1 ultimately proved their downfall.

West Sussex, looking for 3.5 points from the singles, soon felt the full blast of Worthing's big guns.

Joe Doherty took out Dave Alderson 3 and 2 in the battle of present and past Sussex champions, while Scott Nightingale accounted for Ian Ritchie by the same margin. Now the teams were level and Kevin Bashford's 5 and 4 victory over 16-year-old Ralph Kennedy gave Worthing a momentary advantage.

The see-saw swung West Sussex's way when Jamie Donaldson just got his nose in front of Arwel Roberts to win on the 18th, only for bad news to start coming in for Worthing from the last four matches. It was a new experience for Eric Reekie's team.

Nick Tull was one up on the 16th green against county captain Gary Scarfield and Robert Bright one down on the 16th fairway against left-hander Matthew Scaife, while the other two matches went the way of the home side.

Andrew Moseley went down 4 and 2 to Martin Slumbers and Scott Williams was seldom in it as team captain Myles Averns came in early as a 6 and 4 winner.

This made it 6-4 in West Sussex's favour and the onus was on the champions to win the last two matches knowing that they were three holes adrift on countback 19-16.

The task was huge. Not only did Worthing have to win, but by three holes in total to force a play-off. Tull and Scarfield halved the 16th and Tull took the next by 2 and 1 as tension mounted. Now only Bright could save Worthing while Scaife was bidding to take West Sussex through.

A half in fours kept Scaife in front by one through 16. But a poor drive opened the door for Bright and he took full advantage to be all square on the 18th tee. Both hit good drives. Scaife put his second shot 15ft past the flag, a great effort under extreme pressure. Bright almost matched it but went over the back. When he failed to chip-in, he conceded along with the match.

Reekie said: "Defeat is a bitter pill to swallow, especially after being top dogs for so long. We were all gutted but all credit to West Sussex on the day. They were the better team and played the better golf."

Roy Froud, the West Sussex team manager, was full of praise for both teams.

He said: "It was one of the finest day's golf I have seen in years. On our part, it was a magnificent performance against such a strong side and I cannot say it was expected.Our boys were really up for it and, in the end, we got through by the skin of our teeth.

"Had it come to a play-off, we were starting to wonder who to put out against Joe Doherty, but it didn't come to that."

Froud praised Averns and Scaife, playing No.7 and holding his nerve despite not having played much golf in the last year due to a damaged wrist tendon.

The tone of Mid Sussex's win at West Hove was set in the opening foursomes when John Newsome and Bruce Anderson were one down on the 17th tee to Anthony Francis and Russell Cronin.

The visitors won the hole and on the last Newsome arrowed a 50-yard pitch to three feet and his partner sank the birdie putt to win.

Mid Sussex's strength came from stalwarts Steve Graham, Martin Galway and Gavin O'Hara. Gavin was three under when beating Cronin 4 and 3. Despite Cronin firing four birdies at O'Hara he still couldn't win a hole.

For West Hove, Paul Guy won the last match, having been four down at one stage to Lee Thomas.

Heaviest West Hove victory was 6 and 5 for Tim Marshallsay against Michael Foreman, the Mid Sussex team manager and a late replacement.

Foreman, two down after four, could only applaud his opponent, who had four birdies in five holes and eight putts in six.

Graham, also Sussex Colts manager, jets off to Florida with fiancee Tracy where they will be married.