Reserves Lewis Bridger and Cameron Woodward shone as Eastbourne beat Ipswich at Foxhall Stadium last night.

Eagles finished last in only two heats to surprise the Suffolk club and give themselves a chance of moving up the table.

The visitors built up a six-point lead after heat six and they kept banging in the minor places to frustrate a home side that suffered when the gamble made by skipper Chris Louis to return from a broken collar-bone backfired.

Louis aggravated the injury in heat three and withdrew from the meeting, which left only three riders in the penultimate race, with Bridger combining with David Norris to score a 5-1 over Tobi Kroner.

This put the Eagles four points ahead and Adam Shields denied Mark Loram his first Ipswich maximum. Nicki Pedersen ended up under the air fence, having crashed on the last lap, but Robert Miskowiak was excluded for his part in the incident and the Eagles went home happy.