Eastbourne produced a battling display at Ipswich last night to keep alive their Knockout Cup hopes.

Eagles were beaten 51-42 in the first leg after they had trailed by 16 points with just six races gone.

The Sussex outfit complained bitterly over two decisions by top referee Tony Steele, who excluded Joonas Kylmakorpi from heat three and then world champion Nicki Pedersen in heat five, both after incidents involving Ipswich rider Jesper Jensen.

They contributed to Eagles conceding three 5-1's in the opening five heats, and it was not until heat 11 that Pedersen scored his first win of the season at the seventh attempt.

Two races later, Pedersen was on the mark again when he beat Scott Nicholls for the second time, and with skipper David Norris again in superb form Eagles clawed their way back into contention.

Norris won heat 14 from Chris Louis with Kylmakorpi, riding as a tactical substitute, picking up two points for third place, and with one race to go the gap was down to only seven points.

It might have stayed that way but for Norris blowing an engine in the last race, which then saw Nicholls and Hans Andersen nick a 4-2 against Pedersen.

Even so, the result was a lot better for Eagles than anyone could have imagined after the early exchanges which saw Ipswich in front 22-8 after five heats and 26-10 after six.

Norris sparked the fightback with his second win of the night in heat seven, while Kylmakorpi beat Nicholls to complete Eastbourne's only 5-1 of the match.

Norris was beaten head to head for the only time by Andersen in heat ten but picked up four points for second place on a tactical ride.

Ipswich: Hans Andersen 11, Scott Nicholls 11, Chris Louis 9, Kim Jansson 8, Jesper Jensen 7, Danny Bird 4, Danny King 1.

Eastbourne: David Norris 13, Nicki Pedersen 9, Joonas Kylmakorpi 7, Adam Shields 5, Peter Ljung 4, Ulrich Ostergaard 4, Edward Kennett 0.