Eastbourne Eagles roar into action at Arlington Stadium tomorrow night aiming to start the new season where they left off last year.

Britain's No. 1 outfit take on King's Lynn, the team they pipped to the Elite League title six months ago, in the annual curtain-raiser between the league champions and cup winners.

It will be the first test of the credentials of the 2001 Eagles, who include three new faces, American Brent Werner and Swedish duo Joonas Kylmakorpi and Marcus Andersson.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook is up-beat about the Sussex squad's chances of challenging for top honours again this year and wants to kick-start the campaign by putting the Knights to the sword.

Cook said: "It's a good way to start the season and blow off the cobwebs, but there is also a lot of prestige involved. There's a trophy up for grabs, and there aren't many of those in speedway, so we want to win it."

England internationals Martin Dugard, Joe Screen, Dean Barker and David Norris are all back at Arlington, and Cook believes the club have put together the strongest team possible given the restrictions of the points limit system.

Cook said: "Everything comes down to averages. We had to make some hard decisions in the winter to fit together all the pieces of the jigsaw."

The tapes go up on the new season with Eastbourne on an official team average of 44.89, just below the 45-point limit. The figure includes reductions for the four English riders.

Cook said: "In the event, the riders we had to let go, Paul Hurry and Petri Kokko, were both on loan, and when you take into account the England riders we are actually over the limit."

While Eagles have retained the backbone of their championship-winning line-up, King's Lynn have made wholesale changes.

Their team includes only two of the riders who were beaten 50-42 in the title decider at the end of September, record signing Jason Crump and reserve Tom Madsen.

Big guns Leigh Adams and Craig Boyce are among those who have gone, while the new-comers include Sweden's Peter Karlsson, Niklas Klingberg and Freddie Eriksson and Denmark's Nicki Pedersen.

Much will depend on how quickly Eastbourne's two new Scandinavians adapt to British speedway. Kylmakorpi has never ridden here before, while Andersson's previous efforts with Poole and Edinburgh were cut short by injuries.

A great deal is expected of Kylmakorpi, but he faces a baptism of fire in the No. 4 jacket, while Andersson and Werner will be under less pressure in the reserve berths. Werner is no stranger to Sussex. He has ridden for Eagles before in a guest capacity.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard, Dean Barker, David Norris, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Joe Screen, Marcus Andersson, Brent Werner.

King's Lynn: Jason Crump, Freddie Eriksson, Nicki Pedersen, Niklas Klingberg, Peter Karlsson, Tom Madsen, Ross Brady.

The start is at 7.30.