Eastbourne Eagles go marching on at the top of the Elite League after clinching their fourth double of the season.

Another scintillating away performance saw them beat Belle Vue 48-42 last night.

And with Coventry losing 53-37 away at Wolverhampton, Eagles have now gone three points clear at the top.

The Sussex squad were always in control, despite a remarkable comeback by Jason Crump, who scored a 15-point maximum for Belle Vue on his return from suffering a cracked elbow and three broken ribs less than a month ago.

Eagles led 28-20 after Toni Svab and David Norris had combined for a 5-1 in heat eight.

Although the home side cut the deficit to two points two races later, Eagles struck again with a 5-1 by Joe Screen and Savalas Clouting.

Another Belle Vue 5-1 made it 40-38 to Eastbourne with two races to go, but Dean Barker and Norris delivered the knockout blow for the second successive match with a one-two in heat 14.

Big guns Screen and Mark Loram were again in double figures for Eagles, but much of the damage was done at reserve.

Norris, with his best away display of the season, and Clouting contributed 15 points between them compared with three by the Belle Vue reserves.

Belle Vue: Jason Crump 15, Jason Lyons 11, Sam Ermolenko 7, Brian Karger 4, Tomasz Jedrzejak 3, Matej Ferjan 2, Lee Smethills 0.

Eastbourne: Joe Screen 11, Mark Loram 10, David Norris 9, Savalas Clouting 6, Toni Svab 5, Dean Barker 5, Stefan Andersson 2.