Eastbourne Eagles suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Elite League title favourites Poole last night.

They were beaten 60-30, their heaviest defeat for two years, as the home side went on the rampage.

The Sussex outfit were sunk without trace for the second time this season by the Pirates.

This was worse, however, and potentially more damaging, for Eastbourne than the 56-34 defeat in the cup on Good Friday.

And they would have gone down by even more if it had not been for Lee Richardson, who was guesting for them in place of the injured Mark Loram.

Richardson top scored with ten points, with his only worthwhile support coming from Dean Barker, who finished with seven.

Richardson and Barker provided Eastbourne's only two winners of the night.

Richardson took heat eight with Barker in third place to give Eagles their only heat advantage, and Barker was first in heat 14.

The first two heats were shared, but Poole won the next five, three of them 5-1, to lead 29-13.

With two-thirds of the match gone, Eagles trailed 34-20, but then they were hit by a blitz.

The Pirates plundered four more 5-1s in the remaining six heats.

The visitors had no answer to Leigh Adams, who won all of his five rides, and Tony Rickardsson, who finished with a paid maximum.

Eastbourne, however, were comprehensively outclassed in every department, and that will have to worry Eagles' boss Jon Cook.

Poole: Leigh Adams 15, Tony Rickardsson 13, Davey Watt 10, Lukas Dryml 9, Bjarne Pedersen 7, David Ruud 6.

Eastbourne: Lee Richardson 10, Dean Barker 7, David Norris 5, Joe Screen 3, Adam Shields 2, Frank Smart 2, Joonas Kylmakorpi 1.