Eastbourne Eagles opened their Elite League account with a devastating 59-35 victory over Peterborough Panthers at Arlington Stadium on Saturday.

Lee Richardson produced a captain's performance as Eagles sent out a message to their league rivals that they will be a force to be reckoned with this campaign.

Richardson led the Eagles with a superb 12-point maximum but it was not a one-man show.

Scott Nicholls, Edward Kennett and Lewis Bridger all returned double figures while, further down the order, Cameron Woodward together with Simon Gustafsson and James Brundle each played their part to the full.

Peterborough appeared a pale shadow of the team who triumphed in all four encounters between the sides in 2007.

It was their third comprehensive defeat in as many days following on from unsuccessful Craven Shield visits to Ipswich and Lakeside.

Hans Andersen served notice that he was to pose his regular stubborn resistance as he romped to victory in the first race but Eagles fired in maximum 5-1s in heats two and three to set the tone for the evening.

The heavy rain which started to fall as the match came under orders seemed set to provide the sternest test to Eagles' hopes of a confidence-boosting victory.

Conditions became greasy as Kennett took the chequered flag in heat four in a time just short of 61 seconds.

However, a liberal dousing of sawdust and an improvement in the weather following a heat-five 4-2 ensured there was no reprieve for Panthers.

A further 5-1 in the sixth stretched the hosts' lead to 25-11 and, after Panthers' tactical switches involving Kenneth Bjerre and then Andersen failed to rekindle their fortunes in heats seven and eight, it was plain sailing for the rampant Eagles.

Andersen provided Kennett's sole defeat of the night in heat 11 and then added a second, no doubt satisfying victory over Nicholls in the last but this was to prove Panthers' only testing of the Eastbourne resolve.

A second Nicholls/Bridger 5-1 in heat ten extended the scores to 41-23 but the crowd pleaser was when Richardson combined with Kennett to tame Andersen for Eagles' fifth maximum three races later.

Co-promoter Martin Hagon was satisfied with a dominant Eastbourne performance, lavishing praise on everyone from the riders who had done him so proud through to the track staff.

However, he saved special praise for his reserve pairing Gustafsson and Brundle and the role of skipper Richardson in providing advice.

He said: "They needed that. I'm sure that's given them the confidence they need to help them score lots of points for us in the coming weeks."

Eagles are in action tonight against the Coventry Bees.