Eastbourne Eagles lost 46-44 at Oxford last night in an uninspiring Craven Shield match.

Cheetahs took the early advantage, gaining a two point lead in heat two after some hard riding from Krzysztof Jablonski and Joachim Kugelman.

The track was in very poor condition and several incidents caused the meeting to be held up.

Oxford pulled further ahead in heat four when Sam Ermolenko saw off Dean Barker's challenge, but Eastbourne drew level in heat five and the tone was set for the rest of the meeting with little to choose between either side.

Leigh Adams crucially won heat six for the hosts after avoiding team-mate Mark Lemon who had fallen in the back straight.

Eagles tried all they could to break the deadlock by swapping reserves, but the racing was not of the highest quality in difficult conditions.

The deadlock was finally broken in heat 14 when Oxford's Lukas Dryml made his only gate of the night to hold off Barker.

Oxford won the all important toss for gate positions for the final heat and chose the favoured one and three slots.

Not surprisingly the race finished with yet another 3-3 with Adams clinching victory for Oxford.

It was enough to secure a win on the night but Oxford will struggle to get the aggregate win when the second leg is raced at Arlington on Friday week.

Oxford: Leigh Adams 13, Mark Lemon 2, Steve Johnston 7, Lukas Dryml 5, Sam Ermolenko 9, Krzysztof Jablonski 5, Joachim Kugelman 5
Eastbourne: Joe Screen 14, Mark Loram 11, Travis McGowan 7, Dean Barker 9, Savalas Clouting 3, Brent Werner 0.