Having already secured their Division One status for next season, Brighton & Hove finished their men's national league campaign with an entertaining 4-3 defeat at home to Old Cranleighan on Sunday.

With player-coach Joe Naughalty sidelined with injury and skipper Adam Flett out with illness, Brighton handed national league debuts to teenagers Will Buttress and Oscar Davies and both impressed at Blatchington Mill.

The visitors took the lead from the game's first penalty corner towards the end of a tightly contested opening quarter through William Marshall and doubled it following a scramble in front of goal, Jack Smart nudging the ball in.

Luke Owen - taking on penalty corner striking duties in the absence of others - reduced the arrears just before half time but another Cranleighan corner conversion by Milo Wrenn made it 3-1 in the third quarter. Tom Roberts' reverse stick shot added to the visitors' lead but Brighton raised their intensity to set up a grandstand finish.

Sam Rose showed some brilliant individual skills to work space for a shot which was touched in by Tom Langston and then Owen stepped up to convert another short corner. Brighton withdrew their goalkeeper in a frantic effort to snatch an equaliser but with the visitors in disarray, Owen's short corner strike went narrowly wide before the final whistle.

Jon Williams, the Brighton team manager, expressed his relief at his side's survival after the crucial win at Southgate the previous week. "We timed it perfectly," he said, noting that the other sides in the relegation mix had all won at the weekend.

He pointed to the absence of defender Will Heywood with a broken thumb for much of the second half of the season as significant and was pleased with the experienced Joe Sterlini's arrival along with the progress made by James Rayward, another of the younger players. "He is a real discovery, he got better with every game as he grew in confidence."

BHHC 3s 3
Lewes 3s 0

Paul Harvey reports: "A solid win to end the home season on Saturday with goals from Curtis, Stephen and Jack. Lewes were fighting to avoid relegation but solid defence and simple passing hockey got the job done. Stephen’s goal was a highlight, driving into the D and dispatching it into the corner."

South Saxons 2s 1
BHHC 3s 0

Paul Harvey reports: "A re-arranged away trip to Hastings on Sunday to end the season saw the 3s field seven Pebbles, me on half a leg and Don rolling back the years. We fell just short in the end but it was a great fight from everyone and with eight or nine short corners we really should have got at least a draw.

Kudos to all the Pebbles with an outstanding performance from Max. South Saxons were as niggly as ever and lots of credit to all (yes, even Dan and Pixie) for mostly not rising to the bait. Next year, with a more settled team and a short corner routine, we should be gunning for promotion."

BHHC 6s 2
Lewes 5s 1

Tom Wolfenden reports: "A fourth consecutive win sees the M6 finish second in the table and secure promotion. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, we did not have it our own way as a busy Lewes team kept battling to the end.

Indeed, Lewes scored first and put us on notice that we were in for a competitive afternoon. We kept patient and soon equalised when a goalmouth scramble fell to Liam Coleman to force home. Lewes re-doubled their efforts and forced a fine save from Pete just before half time.

The second half was more of the same. The game was finely balanced with snatched chances at either end. The game’s defining moment started when Alan Teal, capping a man-of-the-match performance, cleared a bobbling ball off the line and we passed up the pitch to find Liam, in the inside left channel, who dispatched a low reverse shot to secure the lead.

Fair play to Lewes, who kept asking questions and disrupted our passing game particularly in the final third of the field. Still, we prevailed. Thanks to Alan and Myles for umpiring. It has been a great season - 15W 1D and 4L with a great squad of stick men from the ages."

BHHC 8s 5
BHHC 9s 0

Matt Richardson reports: "An 11.45am pushback at a sunny Blatchington Mill, the Pebbles came into the final game of the season knowing a win would be enough to seal the championship with the 9s lying in a creditable fifth place.

The 8s were without a number of key players and, despite a depleted squad, they looked to start with their familiar brand of high-tempo pressing hockey. However, despite a lot of possession in the opening minutes they failed to capitalise, and on too many occasions uncharacteristically played themselves into trouble or sent passes wayward. Questions were perhaps (inwardly) being asked - were the nerves starting to show? Had we peaked at St Francis last week? Only time would tell.

The 9s were set up with a squad boasting plenty of experience as well as youth to add the all-important pace up front and it was clear from the off they were here to challenge. Seven minutes in a short corner led to an infringemen with the Pebbles awarded a penalty flick very coolly dispatched by Patrick Ford, 1-0 8s.

This perhaps should have settled the nerves, but the 8s failed to make any real inroads into the 9s defence, which included a vocal Myles Ford and Matt Sale keen to keep a clean sheet to close the season, and backed up by some sound goalkeeping.

Three more short corners followed with no outcome and it looked set to stay at 1-0 until 34 minutes in when Theo Isachsen finished a Pebbles move to score, 2-0 going into half time.

It was clear this hadn’t been a pretty 35 minutes and it was now time for a re-group led by Carlo asking for more concentration and a step-up in quality. Second half underway, it took a further 10 minutes for the Pebbles to settle down and start to look like potential champions as they have done on numerous occasions this season.

A flying break from Miles Richardson, passing the ball to Carlo M and onto Theo I, whose cross-box strike was neatly turned-in on the back post by an incoming Miles R - 3-0.

More short corners came and went with no impact on the scoreboard and with more robust goalkeeping the 9s were not going down without a fight. Then breaking forward themselves, the 9s Jens Peters suddenly found himself one-on-one with Elliot Ashdown in the Pebbles goal. Quickly off his line, Elliot made an impressive save to keep the Pebbles clean sheet.

20 minutes in the spark ignited for the 8s with a move which involved almost every player on the team, recycling the ball, transferring and pushing up the pitch ending in a short corner but no goal this time.

Not wanting to settle for three goals, the Pebbles continued to press and on 29 minutes Patrick Ford popped up at the far post for his second and Pebbles' fourth.

Another beautiful attack on 33 minutes, starting from Ant Faulkus at the back to Miles R, Louis Patel and onto Theo I, saw Patrick F complete his hattrick, 5-0. With the final whistle sounding shortly after, the Pebbles were crowned champions - a superb end to a superb season.

Looking back to last September this team, comprising mainly 15- and 16-year olds with a group of four vets led by Carlo M set out to play their first season in the men’s league. No one could predict the outcome but they’ve taken this division apart with some scintillating hockey on occasions and a goal count which tells its own story - 101 for and just 13 against.

There’s no doubting the talent level here underpinned by calm experience in its ranks – a team that consistently play for each other and, without doubt, deserve the accolade of champions - congratulations all."

Other results
BHHC 2s 3 Eastbourne 2s 2
Middleton 1s 1 BHHC 4s 4
St Francis 1s 3 BHHC 5s 2
Crowborough 3s 2 BHHC 7s 1