Eastbourne Eagles failed in their bid to lift the Premiership Trophy for the third time in seven years at King's Lynn last night.

The Elite League champions were beaten 55-37 in the second leg, going down to the cup holders 97-85 overall.

Eagles, thanks mainly to a brilliant contribution from Joe Screen, were in with a shout for most of the match, with the aggregate scores still level after nine heats.

Screen scored a superb paid 17 points, including two thrilling defeats of King's Lynn's No. 1 Jason Crump, but with skipper Martin Dugard missing through flu Eagles were down on strength.

Former Eagle Paul Hurry, who took Dugard's place, battled all the way for his seven points, while Brent Werner's eight points from reserve included a tremendous win over Peter Karlsson.

The Sussex outfit complained bitterly over a controversial decision to rerun heat 11 which they claimed robbed them of a 5-1.

Dean Barker and Hurry looked set for a maximum when Dave Mullett fell at the back, but the referee refused to award the race to Eastbourne. When the race was run again, Karlsson won it.

A 5-1 to the home side in the next race virtually sealed Eastbourne's fate, although they did have the final word with a 4-2 from Screen and Werner over Crump and Nicki Pedersen in the last.

Eagles' boss Jon Cook said: "If we ride like that, we can get a result at Oxford on Friday night."

King's Lynn: Jason Crump 12, Peter Karlsson 10, Nicki Pedersen 9, Freddie Eriksson 8, Niklas Klingberg 8, Tom Madsen 5, Dave Mullett 3.

Eastbourne: Joe Screen 16, Brent Werner 8, Paul Hurry 7, David Norris 3, Dean Barker 2, Joonas Kylmakorpi 1, Marcus Andersson 0.