Eastbourne Eagles drew first blood in the battle for the Elite League title with a 47-42 win over Wolverhampton at Arlington Stadium last night.

The Sussex squad, with big guns Mark Loram and skipper Joe Screen pulling most of the strings, were in control from halfway and led 45-32 with two heats left.

Loram began where he left off last season, winning three on the bounce and figuring in all of Eastbourne's three maximum heat wins.

Screen, who also won three, looked much sharper than for most of last year, and there were also telling contributions from Dean Barker, David Norris and Adam Shields.

Shields produced the ride of the night to defeat Peter Karlsson in heat 12 when he squeezed through on the boards to snatch victory on the line.

When Screen roared to the front in the next, and Loram conjured up a magical effort from the back to snatch second place from the Karlsson brothers, the crowd were ecstatic, and it looked plain sailing for the home side.

The visitors, however, found a sting in the tail and bagged 5-1's in the last two races.

It meant the final score flattered Wolves, who until that point had managed to produce only three winners in 13 heats.

Eagles might live to regret dropping eight points at the death when the teams meet in the return at Wolverhampton later in the season and the bonus point is up for grabs.

For now, though, I guess they will be happy enough to have got off to a winning start against the team who robbed them of the championship last time around in the play-offs.

There was an early scare for Eagles when David Howe left everyone for dead in heat five, and Mikael Max Karlsson went past Norris to hit the home side with a 5-1 and give Wolves the lead 17-13.

Loram and Barker, however, hit back immediately with a fine piece of team riding to keep out Peter Karlsson and level things at 18 apiece.

Eagles edged in front in an incident-packed eighth heat.

First Oliver Allen was ex-cluded after he and Shields had locked up on the back straight and come down in a heap.

Then, in the rerun, Shields brought down Howe as they went into the bottom turn, and he, too, was excluded.

That left just Barker and Howe, and Barker won it to put Eagles in front 24-23.

Loram and Barker bagged another one-two in heat ten to make it 33-26, by which time amazingly neither of the Karls-sons had managed to win a race between them.

Screen was beaten for the first time in heat 11 by Mikael Max, but it was still Eagles who ruled the roost.

First Shields, then Screen and Loram, had Wolves rocking and reeling, and it was a real surprise when Eagles were hit with a double whammy at the end.

First Mikael Max and Adam Skornicki got the better of Shields, and then Screen and Loram were comprehensively outgunned by the Karlssons.

Eastbourne: Joe Screen 12, Mark Loram 11, Dean Barker 8, Adam Shields 8, David Norris 7, Joonas Kylmakorpi 1, Peter Ljung 0. Bonus points: Barker 2, Loram 1, Shields 1.

Wolverhampton: Mikael Max Karlsson 14, Peter Karlsson 9, Adam Skornicki 5, David Howe 5, Sam Ermolenko 5, Oliver Allen 2, Chris Neath 2. Bonus points: Skornicki 2, Allen 2, Mikael Max 1, Peter Karlsson 1.