Edward Kennett produced a moment of magic to help Eastbourne Eagles to another home win.

But Jon Cook's men have given themselves a battle for the bonus point after struggling to a 50-45 home success over rock-bottom Oxford.

Kennett outfoxed Adam Skornicki to complete an Eastbourne 5-1 in heat ten, just after Oxford had levelled the overall scores.

Eagles went on to build a 14-point lead after 13 heats.

But an 8-1 and a 4-2 for the Cheetahs in the last two races took a lot of the shine off the afternoon for the hosts.

Eagles promoter Cook said: "We should have won convincingly but the only way to make amends for that is to win at Oxford on Wednesday. We are capable of doing that.

"It's always difficult when you race against a team you should patently beat easily.

"I thought in David (Norris), Nicky (Pedersen), Dean (Barker) and Edward we had the four best riders in the meeting."

Oliver Allen and Adam Skornicki both won in black and white to give the final score a misleadingly even look.

Pedersen and Norris only surrendered their unbeaten records in heat 15, won by Todd Wiltshire, and Kennett and Norris shared three 5-1s.

Their third was the best. With Norris out in front, Kennett chased Skornicki, looked to go outside and then, as the Pole moved wide to cover, cut back inside on the fourth bend third time around to dart through.

That was the moment which brought a sleepy Sunday afternoon to life and got Eagles back on course to win.

Oxford were 27-15 down after seven heats but outscored their hosts by an astonishing 13-1 in the next two races to level the scores.

Allen, guesting for Davey Watt, started the revival when he was sent out for double points in heat eight.

Eric Andersson completed a bizarre 8-0 behind Allen as Kennett came a cropper first time out and Lewis Bridger fell in the re-run.

Luck was on Oxford's side. Bridger led the first race when it was stopped and Andersson was fortunate to be allowed into the re-run after he too fell seemingly before the red lights went on.

Wiltshire then used his replacement ride for Ales Dryml to lead a 5-1 with Lubos Tomicek, bringing the visitors back to 28-28.

For a few minutes, alarm bells rung. But it was back to normal service after Norris and Kennett had scored their 5-1 in heat ten.

Bridger produced nice overtakes to complete a 4-2 then a 5-1 in successive heats with Pedersen and Barker.

Pedersen sped outside Wiltshire and Norris flew inside the Oxford man to add a 5-1 in heat 13.

But there was still time for Oxford to have the final say.