Eastbourne Eagles nicked another Elite League bonus point, their second in five days, at Belle Vue last night to aid their climb away from the foot of the table.

The Sussex squad, still without world champion Nicki Pedersen, who is back in Denmark receiving treatment for a wrist injury, were beaten 48-45, but that was enough to see they did not return empty-handed.

It was a battling performance by the visitors, who scored points right through the order and twice closed the gap to three points after being ten points down at one stage.

In-form skipper David Norris, with a paid 13 points, and Adam Shields, who scored 12, were the main contributors.

They combined to land a 5-1 at the end against Belle Vue's top scorer, Kenneth Bjerre, and theformer Eastbourne captain Joe Screen to take Eagles close to victory.

Norris and Shields received valuable support from ex-Belle Vue man Jason Lyons, who was brought in to take the place of Pedersen.

Lyons finished with a paid 11 points, which included a six-point effort when he was used as a tactical rider in heat nine and stor-med to victory over Bjerre. With youngster Andrew Moore grabbing third place, it meant Eagles landed a 7-2 to reduce the arrears from 29-19 to 31-26.

When Norris won the next from Screen, with Joonas Kylmakorpi in third place, the gap was down to three points, and Eagles had the home side rattled.

The Aces, however, regained control with a couple of 4-2 heat wins, first by Jason Crump and Tomasz Jedresek and then Bjerre and Rory Schlein.

Eastbourne had fallen behind in the first half of the meeting when they conceded two 5-1's .

Schlein and Screen inflicted the early damage against Peter Ljung when Lyons suffered engine failure, and then Bjerre and Schlein were too hot for Ljung and Ulrich Ostergaard to handle.

In the end, it was another good point for Eagles, who now go to Swindon on Thursday for a rear-ranged fixture.

Belle Vue: Kenneth Bjerre 14, Jason Crump 11, Rory Schlein 10, Joe Screen 8, Tomasz Jedresek 3, Toni Svab 2.

Eastbourne: David Norris 12, Adam Shields 12, Jason Lyons 10, Joonas Kylmakorpi 4, Peter Ljung 3, Ulrich Ostergaard 2, Andrew Moore 2.