Trevor Geer today revealed why he was still smiling after his Eastbourne Eagles were held at home.

And most of his reasons to be cheerful involved the efforts of David Norris and Stefan Andersson in a dramatic 45-45 draw with Ipswich.

Eagles came from eight points down to, fleetingly, be on a matchwinning 5-1 in heat 15.

Chris Harris, the rising star of British speedway, dashed those victory hopes by first passing Davey Watt, then doing the near unthinkable and getting inside Nicki Pedersen with one lap to go.

Harris's heat win, forcing a 3-3 which ensured overall parity, was a stunning effort, probably the ride of the season at Arlington.

Pedersen, who made a pretty quick exit from the stadium, was not smiling. Neither were some Eagles fans who departed as soon as they realised their team had been pegged back at the last.

But the vast majority who stayed behind to applaud both teams on a lap of honour appreciated the entertainment they had just seen.

Geer knew things could have been a lot worse as he praised Norris, who made a surprise comeback from a head injury, and Andersson, answering his critics at the key reserve berth.

The Eagles manager said: "With the team we had I thought we would struggle to win. I thought if we did it would be a miracle.

"David Norris was the main highlight for me. He's feeling good, back to his old self.

"He had a nightmare evening in that both bikes packed in. I think we were down to about four bikes among six riders at the end.

"If only our supporters could see what was going on behind the scenes.

"I thought it was a good result for both teams. We both deserved it."

Pedersen might argue with that "good result" assessment.

He was clearly unhappy after being excluded from heat 13 but ref Christina Turnbull got it right after the Dane, having been outgated by Harris, fell as he tried to muscle his way back in.

Ipswich got a 5-1 in the re-run but Norris and Andersson replied with a heat-14 maximum to set up the last-race drama with the teams level at 42-42.

By that time, Norris was begging and borrowing bikes from his team-mates.

He would have ridden Watt's machine had he gone in heat 15, which was why Geer gave Watt the ride instead.

Norris, though, looked back to his best in his first meeting for more than five weeks.

His paid-nine would have been paid-12 had his second bike not seized up on the last lap when he was leading heat seven. Eagles were 19-11 down at one stage but Geer handled an under-strength line-up shrewdly enough to ensure they had no weak links in the later races.

They chipped away at the deficit with a series of 4-2s and would have won without Harris's heroics.

The Coventry rider, guesting in place of Mark Loram, is known as a never-say-die racer.

He said: "I knew the bike was going well after a few hiccups earlier in the meeting and I started reeling Nicki in.

"Towards the end of the race I thought better go for it' and I managed to cut back and push him a little bit off his racing line.

"Ipswich wanted to make sure they got the bonus and they got an extra point as well so good for them. I think they're happy."