Brighton tennis star Sonay Kartal; Sussex by the Sea

The best curated guide to East (and West) Sussex. What's on in your county, news, food & drink, sport, miscellaneous, history, humour and recommendations

Jul 06, 2025

📰 On the agenda

Sonay Kartal, a 23-year-old from Brighton, has banked £240,000 in prize money after a superb under-the-radar run at Wimbledon. Of Turkish descent, she trains at Pavilion & Avenue Tennis Club in Brighton and Hove and rivalled Emma Raducanu in the junior ranks. She first picked up a racket aged six, despite “falling over and being too scared to come back,” she once recalled.

A coach at the LTA had happened to eat at her father’s kebab house in Brighton and things went from there. It hasn’t been all rosy however after he was banned from running food outlets seven years ago after falling foul of health and safety standards.

Michael Palin’s guiltiest cultural pleasure, from an interview in The Times this week? Sussex By the Sea played by the Grenadier Guards.

A history show re-enactment enthusiast suffered a horror injury when a sword went into his visor. It happened at Bodiam Castle during a mock knights fight and was taken to hospital with a head wound. His condition is described as "serious".

Lady Rothschild, who has a new book out, is in the news after a rare interview with The Telegraph. Born Loretta Basey, she and Steve Coogan shared his house near Barcombe for around four years until 2014. Their courtship also saw the end of her two-year stint as a Page 3 girl, appearing over 20 times in The Sun. She was later swept off her feet by Nat Rothschild, heir to the European banking dynasty.

The sometime-chaotic Lewes to Newhaven Raft Race celebrates 50 years on the Ouse later this month. Naturally, this year’s theme is ‘50’. More

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📣 What they say

Brighton paid £25m for Matt O'Reilly, he unfortunately got a bad injury and was out for a lot of the season he has come back playing and now finds himself up for sale.
I think Brighton has too many young players on loan - they are sent out for two or three seasons and then sold without getting any chance of playing and proving themselves in the Premier League.

Reader Brian Smart in The Argus

Need highly recommended pet help in East Sussex? Head to The Pet Agency - ‘short term help for your pet’

🥘 Food & Drink

The most expensive towns for a pint after Witney, Oxford at £7 are Lewisham in London at £6.50, followed by Brighton and Godalming tied at a pricey £6.30. The cheapest areas for a beer are Arun in West Sussex, where a pint costs just £2.

The best beer garden from The Telegraph’s 500 best pubs in England…

Ypres Castle, Rye

This weather-boarded beauty boasts the best beer in town, plus the nicest beer garden in Sussex, looking out over Romney Marsh. There’s no hot food, just pork pies and the like, while the crisp selection includes Romney Marsh lamb with rosemary and garlic flavour. “People say they taste like a roast dinner,” the young woman behind the bar tells me. People are right.

Gelato Gusto in Brighton’s North Laines has been named among the best ice cream parlours in the UK by Good Food.

🛣️ Out and About

La Liste, the well-regarded hospitality and culinary ranking organisation, has listed Alexander House and Utopia Spa, near Turners Hill, in its latest global list of the top 1,000 hotels. Gravetye Manor is also there.

House & Gardens’ loveliest places to stay in Sussex