Eastbourne Eagles slid to a 49-41 defeat in yesterday's challenge match away to Poole Pirates.
Eagles had no answer to Poole's new Polish signing Tomasz Chrzanowski, who scored 14 points on his home debut.
His four wins included one over Joe Screen when the Eastbourne captain was brought in as a tactical substitute.
The Sussex squad led 13-11, but Poole then went ahead 27-21 after eight races with back-to-back 5-1 heat wins.
Mark Loram and Screen kept Eagles in with a chance with a 4-2 against Tony Rickardsson in heat 13 to make the score 41-37 to Poole, but Chrzanowski and Grzegorz Walasek settled it in the next with a 5-1. Scorers:
Poole: Tomasz Chrzanowski 14, Tony Rickardsson 11, Grzegorz Walasek 8, Gary Havelock 7, Bjarne Pedersen 7, Hans Andersen 2, Mariusz Staaszewski 0.
Eastbourne: Mark Loram 12, Joe Screen 10, Dean Barker 7, Toni Svab 6, Stefan Andersson 5, Savalas Clouting 1, David Norris 0.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article