David Norris produced a vintage display as Eastbourne Eagles pulled out all the stops to beat Elite League table toppers Oxford Cheetahs.

Norris roared to four wins in a paid return of 17 points on a memorable night at Arlington Stadium.

Saturday's 51-39 victory amounted to a 22-point turnaround from three weeks earlier, when Oxford won at Arlington in the league, and gave Eagles a flying start to their Craven Shield campaign.

They had to dig deep after seeing an eight-point lead cancelled out with five heats to go, prompting Eastbourne boss Jon Cook to comment afterwards: "We showed a bit more desire tonight."

Norris was always in the thick of the action, winning three of the last four races and featuring in four maximum heat wins in one of Eastbourne's best home displays of the season.

He dropped his only point of the evening to Leigh Adams in heat nine but gained revenge with a brilliant win over the Grand Prix ace three races later and won the finale with Adams back in third place.

The visitors again used rider replacement for the absent Lukas Dryml, but this time a battling Eagles outfit refused to be phased by the prospect of Dryml's rides being taken by Adams and Oxford's other main riders.

It now looks a straight fight between Eagles and Poole for a place in the Craven Shield final after Poole's win at Oxford the previous night.

Upset followed upset on a night when the bookies would have cleaned up.

Joonas Kylmakorpi and Roman Povazhny bagged the first 5-1 of the night in heat two, and that was followed by another maximum via Norris and Brent Werner.

Oxford hit back in the next with Adams and Ales Dryml beating Dean Barker and Povazhny, and the surprises continued with Norris and Kylmakorpi relegating Todd Wiltshire and Brian Andersen to the minor places.

Werner, having outgunned Grand Prix star Wiltshire in heat three, then trailed in last behind Oxford reserve Andrew Appleton.

Barker came from behind to snatch second place from Steve Johnston in heat seven, but Oxford's second successive 4-2 reduced the margin to four points.

Three races later, it was all square when Johnston and Andersen scored a shock 5-1 against Martin Dugard.

Most times this season that would have been the turning point, but Eagles showed a new resolve with Barker and a revitalised Kylmakorpi blitzing Wiltshire and Andersen to put Eastbourne back in front.

When the previously unbeaten Adams could only split Norris and Kylmakorpi in the next, Eagles led 39-33 with three races left.

Adams got inside Dugard on the last lap in heat 13, but crucially the 4-2 to Oxford meant they could not use a tactical substitute in heat 14.

Norris and Kylmakorpi didn't need an invitation to kill off the Cheetahs with a 5-1, and Oxford were reeling when Norris and Dugard delivered another one-two in heat 15.