Adam Shields, Eastbourne's yo-yo rider, was back on top after Eagles grabbed a last-heat win over Peterborough Panthers at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

The Australian has gone from hero to zero and back to hero in the space of three matches after hitting a 15-point maximum in the team's only other win against Coventry and then shouldering the blame for the defeat by Wolverhampton.

Three wins, including two over Grand Prix star Lee Richardson and another against former world champion Gary Havelock, got Shields back on the right track as Eagles edged out Peterborough 47-43.

It was their first home win in four attempts and lifted Eagles off the bottom of the Elite League table, although boss Jon Cook wasn't crowing about the result.

Cook said: "I think my aspirations are a bit higher than winning last-heat deciders. We threw away a hatful of points again tonight, but I'm afraid that's the nature of this team at the moment."

Cook, however, must have been satisfied with the latest contribution from Shields, who finished with 14 points and sparked Eastbourne into life after they had trailed 26-22 midway through the match. He was the first rider to dent Richardson's record after a hat-trick of wins, stormed past Havelock in the next and then had the final say with another victory over Richardson in the deciding race.

It was vintage Shields, whose scariest moment came when he pulled a celebratory wheelie after beating Havelock and then had to take drastic action to avoid a head-on collision with the track tractor.

Nicki Pedersen was beaten by Richardson first time out but then won three on the bounce, which included a revenge win over Richardson in a crucial heat 13, before he kept Kelvin Tatum at the back in the clincher.

It was tight all the way without a 5-1 in sight and thankfully devoid of any tactical substitutions or jokers. Only five heats were shared, the rest ending 4-2 one way or the other.

Eagles, in fact, weren't in front until heat 14 when stand-in skipper Joonas Kylmakorpi rode round the outside of Havelock in Shields style, and Edward Kennett poached third place.

Kennett also picked up a win in the reserves race and a battling second place on the run-in along the way but was given a hard lesson about life at the top in heat 12.

Eagles' teenage rookie led the race for three and a half laps but still finished last after Tatum, Kylmakorpi and Ricky Ashworth all went past him in a matter of yards.

Ulrich Ostergaard sped to a paid eight points, his best Elite League effort, which included a win over Tatum and going past Andrew Appleton, but blotted his copy book when he cannoned into Ashworth and was excluded.

More points were wiped off when Seemond Stephens, a late replacement for Peter Ljung, who was called up to join the world championship circus along with David Norris and Peterborough's Dryml brothers, came down as he and Kennett were set for maximum points.

While all this was happening, Richardson, Havelock and Tatum kept chipping away to keep the visitors in the box seat.

Shields, with a little help from Kylmakorpi and Ostergaard, got Eagles back on terms at 30-30 after ten heats, and Pedersen brushed aside Havelock, despite a mid-race crisis, to keep the scores level after the next.

Panthers were back in front 37-35 with three to go, but back-to-back wins by Pedersen and Shields and then Kylmakorpi and Kennett meant it was advantage Eagles going into the last heat at 43-41.

Richardson showed briefly out of the gate, but once Shields got in front he was in no mood to go back to playing the villain.

David Norris reached the next stage of the world championship after coming fourth in Italy. Peter Ljung failed to get through in Slovenia.