Eastbourne Eagles withstood a spirited Coventry rally tonight to make it six home wins in a row.

Eagles, helped by guests Adam Shields and Bjarne Pedersen, beat the much-changed Bees 50-40 in Elite League action at Arlington.

The hosts saw an eight-point lead halved with three races to go and nerves were on edge.

Shields, though, led a 4-2 in heat 14 and a 5-1 from skipper-for-the-night Cameron Woodward and Simon Gustafsson finished the job.

Shields finished with paid-14 from five rides, suffering just one shock defeat to Chris Schramm.

Gustafsson shone at reserve with paid-nine from six races.

Pedersen scored 15 from six for Eagles while Freddie Lindgren shone for Bees with 14 (6).

Scott Nicholls was ruled out of the meeting by his shoulder injury while Coventry arrived without any of the usual top five due to injury and GP commitments.

Meanwhile, Lee Richardson reached the final of the qualifying series for next year's GP series when he came through a semi at Terenzano, Italy, tonight, scoring 12 points from five rides.

Edward Kennett narrowly missed a place in the qualifying final after scoring eight points in the other semi at Motala, good enough for tenth place. He was just one point off the qualification places.