Dean Barker staked his claim for a place in Eastbourne Eagles' 2002 line-up with a match-winning display at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

Barker roared to four straight wins en route to a 13-point score, his best return of the season, as the Sussex squad beat Elite League rivals King's Lynn 51-39.

It was the first time Barker had topped the scorechart in another injury troubled season, but all the signs are that speedway's Bionic Man is determined to keep coming back for more after a series of career threatening crashes.

Barker might have been fortunate to win first time out after the race was restarted, but there was no fluke about the way he blitzed Grand Prix riders Nicki Pedersen (twice) and Niklas Klingberg after that.

Barker's efforts deflected the limelight away from brother-in-law Martin Dugard on his last home league appearance.

Arlington legend Dugard seems determined to bow out of the sport with the minimum of fuss and has given up his place in Thursday's Elite League Riders' Championship to Barker.

If Eagles had a score to settle with King's Lynn after the shenanigans of earlier in the season, when the visitors walked out at Arlington, then they could hardly have done it in more convincing fashion.

Apart from Nicki Pedersen's win over Dugard in the opener, King's Lynn had nothing to show for their efforts until late in the proceedings.

Eagles won the next ten races and led 41-19 at one stage. And even when they failed to beat the opposition, they had referee Mick Posselwhite to give them a helping hand.

Posselwhite, who might have excluded Dugard after a first-bend fall in heat one, made an astonishing decision when Dugard again crashed into the fence on the pits bend in heat ten.

With Ronni Pedersen and Klingberg clear of Brent Werner with just over a lap to go when the red lights came on, he refused to award the race 5-1 to King's Lynn.

Instead he ordered a re-run and, when Werner flew from the gate, Eastbourne salvaged a 3-3 and left the King's Lynn riders shaking their heads in disbelief.

The visitors did get in on the act with three 5-1s in the last four heats to give the final scoreline an unreal look.

The exception was heat 13 which was worth the admission money alone with Barker holding off Nicki Pedersen on the line in a thriller after Pedersen had stormed past Dugard on the last bend.

For most of the match, it was one-way traffic, with all seven Eastbourne riders winning at least one race, and King's Lynn failing to find an answer to top man Jason Crump's absence on international duty.

Crump's four scheduled rides produced only two points under the rider replacement system.

Eagles all but cleaned up, leading 21-9 after five heats and 38-16 after nine.

Barker's victory roll apart, the pick were wins by Toni Svab and the flying Roman Povazhny over Nicki Pedersen.

Barker's bid to land a five-timer and a 15-point maximum were finally ended by Nicki Pedersen and Klingberg in the last race.