Savalas Clouting produced the most prolific display of his Eastbourne career as Eagles moved back into the driving seat in the Elite League title battle.

After a week in which the Eagles were knocked off the top perch by Wolverhampton, they roared into pole position again at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

Despite being without three of their championship-chasing squad, Eastbourne never showed any signs of slipping up against Peterborough Panthers, who were comprehensively beaten 54-36.

For the most part, the visitors fought a rearguard action, but at the final count the margin was more than enough to overturn a ten-point deficit from the reverse fixture and earn Eagles the bonus point.

Eastbourne are now three points clear of Wolves and eight ahead of Coventry, and with two home matches to come this week, against Poole on Thursday and Oxford next Saturday, the writing is on the wall for the other contenders.

No one shone brighter in Eastbourne's latest chase for glory than Clouting, who finished with ten points, his first double-figure return in 31 league and cup matches since his move from Ipswich at the start of the season.

Clouting was by far Eastbourne's busiest rider, taking all but one of the replacement rides for the absent Stefan Andersson and appearing in four of the first eight races.

He finished with a paid 13 points from six outings in another solid all-round performance by the Arlington outfit which was again spearheaded by the ultra-consistent Mark Loram and David Norris.

Ryan Sullivan could not quite match Tony Rickardsson's flawless effort for Poole the previous week, winning five of his six races, which included a hat-trick of victories over Loram.

The best of the lot came at the end when he shot from third to first place coming out of the pits turn.

Sullivan received good support from Sam Tesar, who was the only other Peterborough rider to win a race when he beat Clouting and Norris in heat 14.

Piotr Protasiewicz, however, was desperately disappointing. He managed only a couple of second places, plus a fall and an engine failure, just 11 days after he scored 13 points on the same track for Poland in the World Cup.

The first real breakthrough came in heat five, surprisingly involving Sullivan, who was beaten into third place by the fast gating Norris and Joe Screen.

Another maximum heat advantage in the next race by Loram and Clouting, when Protasiewicz came down, opened up a ten-point gap.

The visitors briefly threatened to make a match out of it with a 5-1 in heat seven via Sullivan, who was in as a tactical substitute, and Tesar.

Few teams rattle Eagles' cage these days, however, and a couple of 4-2's and then a 5-1 from Norris and Loram in the next three races put the Panthers on the back foot again.

That made it 37-23, and it was plain sailing after that, another 5-1 from Screen and Jeremy Doncaster in heat 12 stretching the lead to 18 points.

Part of the trick of this game is to find guest riders who will come up with the goods. Eastbourne boss Jon Cook seems to have the knack.

Steve Johnston, who got a late call-up instead of Brent Werner, and Doncaster both won races from behind, Johnston beating Protasiewicz in heat four, and Doncaster foiling a tactical ride by Tesar in heat eight.

Between them, they contributed 14 points to the Eastbourne cause, while Peterborough, faced with similar problems involving the non-availability of their own riders, failed to come up with anyone who could score a point.

Eastbourne: David Norris 11, Mark Loram 11, Savalas Clouting 10, Steve Johnston 8, Joe Screen 8, Jeremy Doncaster 6. Bonus points: Clouting 3, Johnston 2, Norris 1, Loram 1, Screen 1, Doncaster 1.

Peterborough: Ryan Sullivan 16, Sam Tesar 10, Piotr Protasiewicz 4, Simon Stead 3, Oliver Allen 3, Chris Schramm 0. Bonus points: Tesar 1, Stead 1, Allen 1.