The Sussex outfit beat the Cheetahs 50-43 at the Cowley Stadium, and the result was never in any real doubt.

Eagles led from the start when Joe Screen and Dean Barker scored a 4-2, and they were 14 points ahead after seven races.

Petri Kokko and Brent Collyer stretched the lead to 9-3 with a maximum in the reserves' race, and that was followed by 5-1's from Screen and Barker in heat five and then Martin Dugard and David Norris in heat seven.

It was one-way traffic at that stage, but the home side hit back in the next two races when they were able to bring in tactical substitutes.

Steve Johnston, brought in as a golden tactical substitute, won race eight ahead of team-mate Todd Wiltshire to give Oxford an 8-1 heat win.

Johnston started with a 25- yard handicap after being penalised at the tapes but still won the race after Dean Barker had crashed.

A 5-1 in the next cut East-bourne's lead to three, but that was as close as the home team got.

Dugard and Norris put Eagles back on track in heat ten with a 4-2, the Eastbourne skipper coming from behind to defeat Wiltshire.

A maximum from Dugard and Kokko in heat 12 virtually settled matters, and although Eagles conceded a 5-1 in the next Norris and Kokko wrapped it up with a 4-2 in heat 14.

It was a miserable night for Roman Povazhny, Oxford's former Eastbourne rider. The Russian could manage only one point.

Oxford: Steve Johnston 14, Todd Wiltshire 14, Jimmy Nilsen 12, Lukas Dryml 2, Roman Povazhny 1, Jon Underwood 0, Ales Dryml 0.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard 10, David Norris 10, Petri Kokko 8, Paul Hurry 8, Joe Screen 7, Dean Barker 5, Brent Collyer 2.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.