Eastbourne Eagles ace Mark Loram broke a leg in a horror crash at Oxford last night.

Loram, who only returned to the team last week after three months out of action with a broken arm, was injured when he smashed into the fence.

The former world title holder will now be out for the rest of the season after sustaining a com-pound fracture of the right leg.

Loram lost control as he attempted to overtake on the outside. No other rider was involved.

The injury is a devastating blow to the Eastbourne No. 1 and the club's hopes of clinching a place in the Elite League play-offs.

Ironically, Loram had said recently he would not ride in next month's World Cup in Denmark because he considered the five-rider format too dangerous.

Last night's meeting was held up for over half an hour while Loram re-ceived treatment on the track before being taken to hospital.

Adam Shields suffered a dislocated thumb and hand injuries in a three-man pile-up later in the meeting.

Eagles lost the match 47-43 but won the bonus point when new signing Nicki Pedersen beat Greg Hancock in a run-off.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook said: "Everyone is gutted for Mark, but it was an incredible effort by the rest of the team to come back and get the bonus point.

"You can never write this team off. We are made of stern stuff these days."

It was a triumphant re-turn for Pedersen to the club which sacked him a few weeks ago.

He was the only rider to beat Hancock, the man who replaced him at Oxford, when he won heat 13, and although Hancock got his revenge in heat 15 Pedersen had the last word.

He got a flyer from the tapes in the run-off for the bonus point and then held off Hancock.

Eagles were behind 25-17 after seven races, but then Shields and David Norris raced to a 5-1.

And when they were down 30-24 after nine heats Shields and Dean Barker hit the home team with another 5-1.

With two heats left, Oxford led 42-36, but Ped-ersen and Barker grabbed a 4-2 before Pedersen and Norris shared heat 15 to set up the bonus decider.

Oxford: Greg Hancock 14, Sebastian Ulamek 10, Charlie Gjedde 10, Todd Wiltshire 7, Andy Smith 4, Travis McGowan 1, Matej Ferjan 1.

Eastbourne: Nicki Pedersen 11, David Norris 9, Adam Shields 9, Dean Barker 8, Joonas Kylmakorpi 3, Mark Loram 2, Glenn Cunningham 1.