Steve Dennis hit top form in the Addiscombe CC 25-mile open time trial at Crawley.

The East Grinstead ace recorded a superfast time of 52min.56sec to beat James Dear (Eastbourne Rovers) by 33 seconds.

Dennis won despite having little sleep before the event. He said: "My year-old daughter Emily had a bad night and kept me awake. I was well motivated, though, as London star Peter Hamilton started one minute ahead of me and I caught him around the 18-mile mark."

Bournemouth rider Bryan Taylor suffered an unexpected defeat in the second senior race at Hove Park, held over 40 minutes plus five laps of the 1km circuit.

Taylor looked as if he was going to add to his growing total of wins there as he led the leading group of six riders up the hill leading to the finish.

But London rider John Scripps (VC Londres) stormed past him just before the line to win by a wheel. Bexhill rider Steve Geran (VC Bayeaux) was a close third ahead of Tom Bradbury (Sutton CC) and Darrell Pembroke (Blazing Saddles). Stuart Fahey (Brighton Mitre), who had led at the bell, was sixth.

Saltdean's John Limpus (GS Stella) showed he has other talents besides being a good time triallist when he competed in the opening track meeting at Preston Park.

In the final of the one-lap sprint he produced a great burst of speed to hold off Martin Penfold (Sussex Nomads) and Rob Fuller (Bikeshop).

Sussex riders had a field day in the East Grinstead CC 34-mile road race at Groombridge. James Sutton (unattached) won, with Chris Dransfield (Worthing Excelsior) second and Tom Roberts (Brighton Excelsior) third.

Danny Clark (Brighton Excelsior) was fourth, Craig Wrigley (Sussex Nomads) fifth and Klaus Tilley (Brighton Excelsior) sixth.

The latest placings in the Sussex Sporting Courses Competition show Dave Shepherd (Rother Valley) in the lead with 672 points.

Dennis and Mark Jones (GS Stella), who have both ridden two fewer qualifying events so far, have 475 and 474 points respectively.

Report by Brian Hutton
sports@argus-btn.co.uk