Eastbourne crashed to defeat in their first league match of the season at Ipswich last night.

The Elite League champions went down 49-29, the match being halted after heat 13 in pouring rain.

The result was no surprise. Eagles have not won at Ipswich in 24 consecutive meetings.

The visitors led briefly after a 5-1 by reserves Brent Werner and Marcus Andersson in heat two. It was all downhill after that, however, with the Witches piling up a series of heat wins.

Two successive 5-1's in heats nine and ten stretched Ipswich's lead to 37-23, and when home stars Chris Louis and Scott Nicholls scored another maximum in heat 13 over Eastbourne's top two, Martin Dugard and Joe Screen, the referee called a stop.

Louis and Nicholls were both unbeaten, while Craig Boyce suffered his only defeat of the night at the hands of Dugard.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook said: "Ipswich has never been a happy hunting ground for us. We always get stuffed here, and it's happened again."

Ipswich: Chris Louis 12, Scott Nicholls 11, Craig Boyce 10, Jacek Hampel 6, Jeremy Doncaster 6, Savalas Clouting 3, Jason Bunyan 1.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard 10, Joe Screen 6, Dean Barker 3, David Norris 3, Brent Werner 3, Joonas Kylmakorpi 2, Marcus Andersson 2.