Guest star Mark Loram helped Eastbourne Eagles take a big step towards another final.

But the Arena-Essex heat leader, standing in for David Norris in the three-part Craven Shield semi-final, admits he might not be around for Eagles if they get to the next stage.

Loram scored eight points out of nine, being beaten only by Travis McGowan, and Nicki Pedersen was undefeated before rain ended the first leg of the semi three heats early at Arlington on Saturday.

Eagles have a decent advantage to take to Belle Vue on Wednesday and Oxford on Thursday, having taken 37 points compared to 26 by the Aces and 27 for the Silver Machine.

Loram, whose own club went of the event in the first round, guested for Poole in the third leg of the other semi and helped them reach the final.

While Eagles fully expect him to ride for them in at least the home leg of the final should they get there, Loram insists nothing is settled yet.

He said: "It's all a bit confusing. I don't know what the situation will be.

"I'm just going to try my best, like I always do for every team, and let the politicians of the sport sort that out.

"Hopefully Eastbourne have done enough from the home leg.

"This is quite an even competition but I think Oxford is a good track for Eastbourne riders and they can do well at Belle Vue as well."

The three-team format made for some great racing and a highly enjoyable meeting until rain started to sweep across the track after heat 12.

A couple of falls in the remaining three races, plus the tentative way Adam Shields went around in heat 15, persuaded referee Frank Ebdon to cut the meeting short at about 9pm on the grounds of a slippery track and poor visibility.

Rattled Fortunately, the man they call Fast Fingers Frank had rattled through most of the card by then, though Eagles will feel the stoppage cost them two heat advantages.

It certainly cost them a ride apiece from their best two riders on the night, Loram and Pedersen.

Loram said: "The problem was we had bad visibility. It was pretty tricky and we were glad to get through to an even point before we had any mishaps."

Eagles boss Jon Cook admitted: "We would have liked to have had the other three races but common sense prevailed.

"We just have to accept we've done the best job we could over the heats that were staged.

"That's a good start for us and I'm confident with Mark in for the next two legs we can do more than enough to win the group."

In fact Eagles will go through in second place if they finish less than five points behind the winners, so that ten and 11 point lead is actually worth 15 and 16.

They were helped by a quiet night for Jason Crump, who was only gifted a face-saving paid win when Niels-Kristian Iversen skidded in the rain.

Crump's meeting with Pedersen in heat four provided the best race of the night.

Pedersen, in gate one, got the start, then forced Crump so wide he ended up brushing the air fence.

As the big two battled, Jason Lyons passed them both on the inside but Pedersen gave chase and scorched past the Belle Vue man by the end of the first lap.

That left Moore to fend off Crump for a 4-2 and he did so brilliantly to help Eagles get their noses in front overall.

It was tied at 16-16-16 after eight heats but Eagles then took charge with a 5-1 in the ninth, Loram getting a flyer and Davey Watt coming around the outside to leave Iversen and Freddie Eriksson trailing.

More great work by Moore to get outside David Howe and the accident-prone Lubos Tomicek on the second bend saw him complete a maximum with Pedersen in heat 12.

Then, when Loram and Watt came back out after the interval with an easy 5-2 in the rain, Eagles had the advantage they might need for their travels this week.