Eastbourne Eagles have lift-off. The champions grabbed their first home Elite League speedway win of the season at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

This takes them off the bottom of the table.

An inspired gamble by boss Jon Cook to switch his riders paid dividends as Eagles raced to a 49-41 victory over Peterborough Panthers.

Top guns David Norris, Joe Screen and Martin Dugard posted seven wins between them, while Brent Werner outscored all his team-mates with a paid 13 points from six rides.

Cook's decision to play the numbers game meant that none of his riders occupied the same position as in the previous week's defeat by Poole, and at no time was it more significant than in heat 14.

Werner and Dean Barker combined to produce a superb piece of team riding to defeat tactical substitute man Ryan Sullivan and Shane Parker and land a 5-1 which settled the match.

Sullivan had earlier been beaten only once in four races, while Parker had finished in front of both Werner and Barker, but the Eastbourne duo came up trumps in a heat which had been a disaster area for Eagles in previous weeks.

True, the home side took a little time to get going, trailing Peterborough for five races and not getting their noses in front until heat seven.

But they saw the light after a lengthy delay when the floodlights went out on the back straight, plunging half the track into darkness.

When normal power was resumed, Eastbourne extended their lead to eight points, then ten and eventually 12 before a 5-1 by Mark Loram and Sullivan in the last heat, when it didn't matter, flat-tered the visitors.

That was Loram's only win of the night in six attempts, the world champion succumbing to a series of brilliant rides by first Dugard, then Norris and Screen twice.

Most of the racing was right out of the top drawer, Sullivan winning a thriller from Screen, Dugard holding off Loram in another nailbiter, and Screen riding round the outside of Loram.

Norris and Werner underlined Eastbourne's superiority with a 5-1 over Parker and the desperately disappointing Matej Ferjan in heat ten, and in the next Dugard produced his best ride of the season so far to inflict Sullivan's first defeat of the night.

Panthers threw in Loram and Parker as a double tactical in heat 12, but Screen won it from Loram with Werner shutting out Parker for a 4-2 to Eastbourne.

Sullivan gained revenge on Dugard ahead of Loram and Norris in a cracking 13th heat, but there was no way back for the visitors when Barker and Werner produced their magic after that.

THE SCORERS Eastbourne: Brent Werner 11, Martin Dugard 11, Joe Screen 9, David Norris 9, Dean Barker 6, Marcus Andersson 2, Joonas Kylmakorpi 1. Bonus points: Werner 2, Barker 2, Screen 1.

Peterborough: Ryan Sullivan 14, Mark Loram 12, Shane Parker 6, Dave Mullett 5, David Howe 4, Matej Ferjan 0, Grant MacDonald 0. Bonus points: Mullett 2, Sullivan 1, Howe 1.