Saturday afternoon racing has been taken off the agenda at Eastbourne Eagles.

But the Elite League club are still none the wiser as to how to bring in bigger crowds, especially on Grand Prix weekends.

They are hoping a switch at No. 8 might improve results and rekindle early season optimism.

Eagles balloted fans at Saturday's win over Peterborough to see whether they would support afternoon meetings at Arlington.

The idea was to run at 2.30pm on days when Grands Prix were being televised in the evening.

Supporters filled in questionnaires handed to them as they entered the stadium car park and the majority replied by saying they would go to afternoon meetings.

However, that majority was not big enough for promoters Bob Dugard and Martin Hagon to pursue the idea any further.

Dugard revealed the club would have needed close to unanimous backing from their existing support to go ahead with the idea.

So far this season Eagles have run a challenge match and a junior event on GP evenings but have lost large sums.

They have opted not to run against the Danish GP later this month. Their meeting on the weekend of the British GP has been scheduled for the Sunday afternoon, taking advantage of a break in the Polish league programme.

Dugard was pleased with the efforts supporters made to respond to the questions but admitted their replies left him and Hagon none the wiser as to their next step.

He said: "I was pretty disappointed with the results. We cannot afford to lose that percentage of our current support.

"A lot of people didn't just tick the boxes but also wrote comments on the papers, which was useful.

"Some were saying they were season ticket holders at football.

"There were a few comments about Saturday afternoons being better because people could bring the kids but for the people who said that, you've got more who said they wouldn't come.

"We used to run on a Friday and our crowd average then was almost double what it is now. But the sport was more popular back then.

"We had just moved up to the first division and our average was more than 2,000 then. You had crowds of about 7,000 at clubs like Coventry.

"We're no nearer deciding what we do on GP weekends."

A poll on the club website, offering a choice of start times, saw about three-quarters of voters say they would support Saturday afternoon speedway with most opting for tapes up at 2pm.

Again, though, that was not enough of a majority to convince the promotion Dugard said he was very disappointed by a crowd of 1,200 for the 46-44 thriller against the Panthers, saying the figure was 200 below what Eagles need to break even. Eagles went into the meeting on the back of four successive defeats and were up against relatively unattractive opposition.

However, there had been a two-week break in fixtures which they might have hoped would whet fans' appetites for live speedway.

Dugard said: "There is plenty to support. The likes of Cameron Woodward with his paid 11, for instance. I thought it was an excellent meeting with good race times so the entertainment is there. People should come out and support it."

Opinion was split when it came to Dugard's view that the league should be run without GP riders.

The Arlington chief said: "I think I have got to say whatever happens we have got to try to keep GP riders in there."

Eagles are hunting a replacement for No. 8 Brent Werner, who has been called in for six meetings this season and struggled. Dugard said: "Brent had a gift in his first race on Saturday and those were the only points he got.

"Ty Proctor of Peterborough had never seen the track before and he felt his way around in heat two.

"But after that he showed some spark."

Joonas Kylmakorpi of Lakeside guests at home to Swindon on Saturday in place of Lewis Bridger, who is at the World Team Cup for under-21s.