Eastbourne Eagles were beaten for the fourth match in a row when they lost 49-41 at Belle Vue last night.

The Sussex squad were in the hunt until the penultimate heat of an incident-packed meeting.

Some consolation for the Eagles was that they took the bonus point.

In the end, however, they could not prevent the bottom team in the Elite League picking up only their sixth win in 28 matches.

Skipper Martin Dugard produced one of the rides of the season in heat 13 to come from last to first.

He went past Peter Karlsson on the inside and then roared round the outside of Lee Richardson.

Dugard finished with a paid 16 points from six rides and received good support from David Norris and Brent Werner.

Norris was paid for ten and Werner nine, which included partnering Dugard to two 5-1 heat wins.

Eagles were furious over a controversial decision in heat six after Karlsson and Roman Povazhny had been involved in a spectacular crash.

Povazhny was excluded and the race awarded 5-1 to the home side, but Eastbourne protested that Karlsson was the rider to blame.

Belle Vue: Jason Lyons 12, Lee Richardson 10, Peter Karlsson 7, Kaj Laukkanen 6, Tomasz Jedrzejak 6, Tomas Topinka 4, Matej Ferjan 4.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard 15, David Norris 9, Brent Werner 7, Dean Barker 5, Toni Svab 3, Roman Povazhny 2, Joonas Kylmakorpi 0.