Eastbourne Eagles have one hand on the Elite League Knockout Cup after destroying holders Peterborough Panthers at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

The double-chasing Sussex squad roared to a 55-35 victory, doubling the target set by boss Jon Cook to take to Peterborough for the deciding leg in two weeks' time.

Mark Loram and David Norris were again the duo who fired most of the bullets as Eagles gunned down a depleted Peterborough outfit.

Loram was one race away from posting, amazingly, Eastbourne's first full maximum of the season after scoring four wins on the bounce.

Norris, however, grabbed the lead in the final heat and hung on to it, with Loram chasing him home ahead of Lee Richardson to stretch the lead to 20 points.

Not that anyone in the Eastbourne camp, least of all Loram, would have cared. The important job in hand was to put the tie effectively beyond recall.

Loram finished with a paid 15-point maximum, while Norris's only reverse came at the hands of the effervescent Richardson when Panthers employed him as a tactical substitute.

Two maximum heat wins in the opening three races, first by Loram and Stefan Andersson and then Norris and Joe Screen, put the home side on track for a comprehensive victory.

Guest duo Richardson and ex-Eagle Mark Lemon, together with Peterborough's lone striker Sam Tesar, did their best to hold back the tide in mid-match.

With four races left, the gap was still only eight points, but a 4-2, 5-1, 4-2, 5-1 finish underlined Eastbourne's strength in depth.

If there was one race which did for the visitors and virtually ensured the trophy will return to Arlington after five years, it was heat 13.

Tesar stormed into the lead in front of Loram, but when Richardson, challenging on the outside of Loram, ran out of space and crashed through the fence any advantage Peterborough might have gained from the race disappeared with him.

Loram and Dean Barker shut the door on Tesar in the rerun and Eastbourne's whiphand jumped to 14 points and rising.

It was a pity another big crowd did not have the added bonus of seeing Eagles lift the trophy, but it will take something extraordinary now to change things around in the second leg.

What they did see was plenty of action fitting for a cup final.

Norris fought back on the run-in to beat Richardson by inches in heat five after Richardson had gone past Screen on the inside and got his wheel in front of Norris coming off the last bend.

Adam Shields, the rider Eastbourne want to add to their roster on a permanent basis next season, rode round the boards to win heat 12, with Lemon beating Screen on the line for second place.

It all means the cup celebrations are now on ice until October 9 when the return is staged at Peterborough.

In between, Eagles have another date with destiny when they go to Wolverhampton on Wednesday for the first leg of the championship play-off. The second leg is at Arlington a week later.

Eastbourne: Mark Loram 14, David Norris 14, Dean Barker 8, Adam Shields 7, Stefan Andersson 6, Joe Screen 5, Savalas Clouting 1. Bonus points: Screen 2, Loram 1, Barker 1, Shields 1, Andersson 1, Clouting 1.

Peterborough: Lee Richardson 13, Mark Lemon 9, Sam Tesar 9, Shane Parker 3, Chris Harris 1, Jason King 0. Bonus points: Lemon 2.