Bermuda?s batsmen were whistling a familiar tune in the first game of their UK tour yesterday at East Grinstead Cricket Club, capitulating meekly on a damp pitch to set up a straightforward seven wicket victory for their young professional hosts.

On an overcast morning and on a ground which the previous week had been submerged in water, whoever won the toss was almost certain to bowl.

And when the coin fell the wrong way for skipper Janeiro Tucker as he looked disapprovingly at the pitch, it was a pretty safe bet that Bermuda would struggle to impose themselves in such alien and inhospitable conditions.

Though vice-captain Irving Romaine (25) and OJ Pitcher (11) ensured the side got off to one of their best starts in recent times ? finding themselves a comfortable 40-1 off only ten overs ? it was not long before wickets began to tumble at regular intervals, with every batsman bar Dean Minors (40) finding the going tough on a painfully slow surface which looked more like a putting green than a cricket pitch and offered plenty of sideways movement.

A score of 190 might have been defendable, but with over 50 fewer runs than that to play with Bermuda?s bowlers were on a hiding to nothing in the afternoon, particularly with batting becoming easier as the sun emerged ? though to their credit they never let their heads drop as Sussex cruised to a win with more than 15 overs to spare.

An overwhelming sense of d?j? vu surrounded Bermuda?s efforts with the bat and it should be a cause for great concern that despite almost daily team meetings, endless video analysis sessions and plenty of individual soul searching, the same amateurish mistakes continue to be repeated.

With cups of hot chocolate and plenty of sweaters the order of the day for most of the players on the team balcony, Bermuda once again lost a wicket early on as left-handed opener Treadwell Gibbons jr flicked his second ball straight to square leg for a duck to leave Bermuda one for one in the first over.

This brought Romaine to the crease at number three, and he was his usual aggressive self from the outset, forcing Sussex to relax their attacking fields almost immediately with some powerful drives and cut shots through the offside.

But having negotiated the first ten overs successfully, both Romaine and OJ Pitcher then got completely stuck ? adding only four runs in the next six as they refused to force the issue with singles and Sussex?s canny bowlers starved them of any obvious boundary balls.

Romaine was eventually trapped lbw by a delicious arm ball from left-arm spinner Tom Smith while Pitcher followed a few balls later, attempting one booming drive too many outside the off stump to be caught at slip off seamer Philip Edwards.

Forty for one off ten had suddenly become 48-3 off 16 and the pressure was on new batsmen Janeiro Tucker and Delyone Borden to reclaim the initiative.

Tucker started brightly, cracking Smith through mid-on for four and caressing the ball into the gaps intelligently ? although the left-handed Borden was struggling with both his foot movement and timing and was eventually put out of his misery when he patted a long hop straight to the man at gully.

There then followed a mini-revival under Tucker and new man Minors, and at 80-4 at the halfway stage, it was absolutely crucial that these two senior players got stuck in and tried to bat through to the latter stages without taking any unnecessary risks.

But having looked totally untroubled for his 17, Tucker suddenly had a meltdown, lofting Smith straight into the hands of the fielder on the mid-on boundary who had positioned there only three balls before just in case Tucker decided to take the aerial route.

Given the situation it was an absolute pig of a shot ? and when Saleem Mukuddem was lbw for nought three balls later, Bermuda were in dire straits at 80-6 with no recognised batsmen to come.

As has become typical, however, Minors came to the rescue: scampering between the wickets, shepherding the tail and blasting the Sussex spinners for leg-side boundaries whenever they dropped the remotest bit short.

When he eventually fell, caught at square cover in the 41st over with the score at only 131, the writing was well and truly on the wall and Bermuda?s alarmingly long tail refused to wag.

Chasing small targets on dodgy pitches is a notoriously tricky business, however, and Bermuda would have hoped as they jogged out to field after lunch that a succession of early breakthroughs might tip the balance in their favour.

That breakthrough came in only the third over, though even Kevin Hurdle would admit that his juicy short-pitcher should have ended up on the adjacent road rather than in the hands of Borden at square leg, who pulled off a sensational, juggling catch from opener Chris Nash?s fierce pull shot.

With much to prove after a very poor tour of Trinidad, gangly seamer Ryan Steede looked much more at home in English conditions and caused problems straight away when he came on at first change ? even if he was guilty of persistent over-stepping.

Moving the ball in the air and off the seam from a good length, Steede had left-hander Neil Turk lbw in the sixth over while a very convincing shout for a caught behind off new man Sean Heather was turned down not long after.

Yet showing the discipline one would expect from full-time cricketers, some of whom had experience in the county?s first team, Sussex never once panicked and kept the score ticking over with ease.

And even though Mukuddem came on and removed Heather caught behind by Minors for seven, Cambridge University captain Zoheb Sharif (37 not out) and Andrew Hodd (49 not out) knocked off the remaining runs with the minimum of fuss to hand out what Bermuda hope will be their one and only thrashing.

Meanwhile, Tucker?s charges must pick themselves up quickly today when they take on familiar rivals Lloyds Cricket Club at Beckenham over the county border in Kent.

Lloyds, a team made up mainly of insurance brokers who were once solid county or club players, first toured the Island in the summer of 2004 while they also beat Bermuda by two wickets in a closely-fought practice match before last summer?s ICC Trophy.

The teams will battle it out for possession of the Catlin Cup, a trophy introduced by Lloyds two years ago and currently in their possession.