Two Sussex teams were placed in the top ten of the gruelling 12 Stage of the South of England Road Relay Championship for the first time in history.

Few clubs have the strength in depth to contest this event as it requires six runners to cover just over five miles and a further six to race over three miles.

Although the championship tag is now some 30 years old the race goes back to pre-war days when an invitation to compete in the London to Brighton relay, which was restricted to just 20 clubs, was an honour that only Sussex clubs Horsham Blue Star Harriers and Brighton Athletic Club ever received.

In the fifties the race, which was held over ten stages over varying lengths ranging from just over two miles to nearly seven miles, was held in September and was confined to Southern Clubs from which they qualified for a place in the National Championship which was held in April.

Brighton and Hove Athletic Club were the only Sussex team ever to qualify for the national race and that only twice.

By the mid-1960s the increase in road traffic made the race too dangerous and for a couple of years the race died until the Hercules/Wimbledon club introduced their 12 stage relay with alternate legs of five miles and three miles at Wimbledon Common.

The revised race was quickly recognised as the "Southern championship".

Traffic again caused the demise of the highly popular Wimbledon race in 1994 and it was transferred to a Sunday, moved to Thurrock and then to Milton Keynes.

Just Brighton and Hove and Phoenix contested this year's race from Sussex so it is even more remarkable that the City of Brighton and Hove could produce two teams capable of finishing in the top ten of this prestigious race.

It is normal for clubs from Greater London to dominate the top ten places but is rare when a town, or rather city the size of Brighton and Hove, has produced two teams of such standard.

Twelve months earlier these two clubs had another close battle when Phoenix finished tenth to Brighton and Hove's 11th placing with just over two minutes separating them.

This year Brighton and Hove finished seventh and Phoenix eighth, the Phoenix Club's highest ever placing, separated by just 55 seconds.

The question must be asked how high would they have finished had the city been represented by one club and the best 12 runners competed as one team?

After 50 miles of racing the gaps between teams are normally several minutes but a City of Brighton and Hove team would have finished fifth, still one minute short of the Sussex record time that Brighton and Hove set in 1999 when they filled third place.

Clubs are allowed to enter B teams and on their performance this year the B team would have placed ninth which would have won the B team competition.

Neither team was at full strength so it was a remarkable effort.

Phoenix, through Patrick Davoren, who clocked 24 minutes 58 seconds on the opening leg provided the fastest time for the 5.2-mile leg just five second faster than team-mate Geoff Hill.

Over the 3.5-mile leg Brighton and Hove's 17-year-old Joe Stephenson was the fastest Sussex runner in 17min. 37sec. just four seconds faster than fellow Brighton and Hove 17-year-old Jack Vail.

Phoenix are in Birmingham for the national championships this weekend as the sole Sussex representatives.

Injuries have stopped Brighton and Hove fielding a representative team.

The first of this season's Southern Women's League matches are this weekend while next weekend the British Athletics League and the Southern Men's Leagues hold their opening fixtures.