Eagles 41 Poole 48.

Skipper Lee Richardson could be facing a lengthy lay-off after suffering more injury woes on the night Eastbourne Eagles lost their perfect home record.

Richardson sustained a suspected fracture to the already cracked bone in his right wrist when he went down in his second ride of a 48-41 Elite League setback at home to Poole Pirates.

He tried to go in his next race but pulled out in agony and Eagles were left short of manpower against a strong all-round Pirates outfit for whom Adam Skornicki piled up 19 points at reserve.

It was another entertaining Arlington meeting, watched by a season's best crowd of about 3,000 on a perfect summer's evening.

Those facts, though, will offer scant consolation to Eagles' management as they look to lift their side for a burst of three matches in three nights at the end of this week.

Richardson's injury would perhaps not have been as costly had they possessed the sort of firepower at reserve shown by Poole.

Skornicki took a full programme of seven rides and was beaten only by Scott Nicholls and Lewis Bridger, proving the matchwinner in the process, while the other three reserves on either team were well and truly at sixes and sevens.

Eagles boss Trevor Geer said: "It could have been a brilliant night. Big crowd, good weather and it should have been a win for us really.

"You can't cater for an injury like that to Lee. Maybe if we had a strong reserve we could have coped but Simon Gustafsson was struggling and I feel for Brent Werner. He is out of his depth a bit here.

"It was always going to be tough as soon as we lost Lee.

"He has been struggling with his wrist and he thought he could ride heavily strapped up.

"The track was very heavy and Lee did not have the strength in his wrist to hang on.

"He wanted to go back out there. I didn't even talk to him about that."

Eagles had a flyer with a convincing 5-1 from Nicholls and Bridger in heat one.

Poole, though, were back at 13-11 when the match started to turn in their favour.

Richardson led heat four when he got out of shape coming off bend three, failed to hang on and went sliding into the air fence, his right arm reaching out to take the impact.

Eagles held on to their lead for a while thanks to a classy win by Nicholls and a determined three-pointer from Bridger, who looked to be getting back to top form.

However in heat nine, usually Eagles' banker at home, Pirates landed the 5-1 which edged them ahead.

Richardson opted to try and ride but pulled out in pain when last.

By that stage, rider-replacement Chris Holder had re-passed Cameron Woodward to complete a 5-1 behind Skornicki and put Poole 28-25 up.

Eastbourne did not give up. Nicholls seemed to have produced the ride of the night in the very next race to outwit fast-gating Holder and lead Bridger to a 4-2 which reduced arrears to 30-29.

Kenneth Bjerre, guesting for the unavailable Edward Kennett, topped even that in heat 11 as he went around the boards and flew outside a startled Krzysztof Kasprzak on the run to the line.

Eagles' lack of depth caught up with them in heat 12 though when Holder and Skornicki plundered an easy 5-1 off the hosts' unproductive reserves.

Nicholls ushered Bjerre around for a home maximum in the next race to keep the contest alive but Skornicki and Magnus Zetterstrom replied in kind to win it for Poole without the need of a heat 15 decider.

EAGLES 41 S. Nicholls 3,3,3,2*2 =13+1 L. Bridger 2*,X,3,1 =6+1 L. Richardson 2,X,R =2 C. Woodward 1*,3,1,1 = 6+1 K. Bjerre 2,2,3,3,0 =10 S. Gustafsson 1*,0,0,1,0 =2+1 B. Werner 2,0,0,0 =2.

POOLE 48 K.Kasprzak 0,2,2,1,3 =8 F.Eriksson 1,X,1*,1* =3+2 C.Holder R,3,2*,2,3,1 =11 M.Zetterstrom 3,1,1,0,2* =7+1 D.Watt rider/replacement D.Davidsson R,1*,0 =1+1 A.Skornicki 3,3,2,2,3,3,2*,3 =18+1