Eastbourne Eagles ran up their biggest home league win for four years against a team masquerading as Belle Vue Aces at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

There is no doubt many of the Eastbourne fans will have enjoyed seeing their side wipe the floor with the opposition.

And the riders won't be complaining about their pay packets on what effectively was a benefit night as the visitors crashed to a 64-26 defeat.

Whether such a mismatch is of any value to the sport, especially with TV cameras highlighting every cough and splutter, is quite another matter.

The fact that Belle Vue had won only four of their previous 24 matches was, on the face of it, a dismal enough prospect in itself.

That the pre-match publicity said they would be boosted by the inclusion of new signings Peter Karlsson and Tomas Topinka, along with star men Jimmy Nilsen and Matej Ferjan, and suggested there might be a contest, made things considerably worse.

In truth, what happened was that the visitors arrived without Karlsson, Nilsen and Ferjan, as well as known absentees Jason Lyons and Kai Laukkanen.

The team which took to the track was made up of an assortment of riders with barely more than a handful of Elite League appearances between them this season and not one heat leader.

Karlsson and Nilsen were reportedly injured and Ferjan riding in Slovenia, while Lyons and Laukkanen were in action in Sweden.

Whatever the reasons, the replacements, however hard they tried, were woefully inadequate, and the only surprise was that they managed to muster as many points as they did.

Topinka, having appeared in just one match for Belle Vue, captained the side, while Tomasz Jedrzejak was riding at Arlington for the first time. The rest, with the exception of Craig Watson, normally ride in the second division.

Eastbourne raced to nine 5-1 heat wins, leading 28-8 after six, 39-15 after nine and 47-19 after 11 heats.

Watson beat Dean Barker and Roman Povazhny in heat four, and Shaun Tacey won heat eight against Povazhny and Brent Werner.

The visitors, who were down to five riders when Simon Stead crashed through the fence in heat two, managed three more shared heats, and the only other points which escaped the Eagles came in heat 14 when Topinka split the Eastbourne pairing.

The Sussex squad will point to a confidence-boosting win after a season of ups and downs.

Martin Dugard was unbeaten in four rides, while Povazhny's three wins included a thrilling effort round the boards in heat 12.

But as victories go, they don't get much more hollow than this.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard 12, David Norris 12, Roman Povazhny 12, Dean Barker 10, Toni Svab 8, Brent Werner 5, Joonas Kylmakorpi 5. Bonus points: Norris 3, Werner 3, Kylmakorpi 2, Povazhny 1, Barker 1, Svab 1.

Belle Vue: Tomas Topinka 9, Shaun Tacey 6, Craig Watson 6, Leigh Lanham 4, Tomasz Jedrzejak 1, Simon Stead 0. Bonus points: Lanham 2, Tacey 1.

Kaj Laukkanen and Jason Lyons made their absences from Arlington pay off in Sweden. Laukkanen won the world championship Inter-Continental final at Vastervik after a run-off with Scott Nicholls, while Lyons claimed one of the other qualifying places in the Grand Prix Challenge. Eastbourne's Stefan Andersson failed to qualify.