Jon Cook today told his Eastbourne Eagles cup hopefuls: "Ten is the magic number."

The Eagles promoter wants a double figure advantage from the first leg of the Knockout Cup semifinal at home to Coventry tomorrow.

Coventry are one of the form teams of British speedway as they put together a late-season surge reminiscent of last year, when they won the play-offs.

They have been boosted by the return from injury of Morten Risager and Scott Nicholls, with Rory Schlein likely to follow.

Which is why Cook admits his team will need to be at their best to keep their season alive.

A repeat of the form shown in last week's win over Ipswich, led by David Norris's 17 points from six rides, would appear to be the minimum requirement Cook said: "If we win by any double- figure margin I will be pretty happy.

"Ten is the magic number. We will take ten or above but we know it is going to be tough.

"Hopefully the Gods grant us dry weather today and tomorrow."

Any Eagles fans who made the trip to Coventry on Monday will Seeing double Cook sets minimum target for home leg realise the importance of the rain staying away.

A torrential early-evening downpour after a glorious day put paid to what was supposed to have been the first leg of this tie.

The teams will try again at Brandon on Friday, September 29.

But it goes further than merely getting a meeting on.

Eagles would love as much of a guarantee as possible of dry weather so they can go about some proper track preparation.

They cannot risk watering too much if there is the threat of rain.

But the nightmare scenario is leaving the track dry, then not getting any rain, leading to slick conditions.

Cook said: "Coventry are the form team but they have got one or two riders who are coming back from injury.

"A lot might depend on how they come through their meeting with Oxford tonight.

"From our point of view we want to be able to prepare the track properly rather than leaving it quite hard.

"If it is heavier going that could suit somebody like Chris Harris but not riders like Scott Nicholls who is carrying an injury."

Nicholls came back from a broken collarbone in last Saturday's Latvian GP but Risager's return from a broken leg was put back by Monday's downpour.

That rain-off also put paid to Schlein's plan to get in some practice laps as he gets over his broken leg while reserve Martin Smolinski continues to have problems with his back.

Despite all that Coventry have put together five successive wins, two of them on the road at Ipswich and Reading.

They have battled well in their league matches at Arlington this year, losing just 47-41 and 47-46 and picked up two wins in Sussex last summer.

A win of ten or more will mean Eagles can nominate a double-points rider in the second leg before they fall behind on aggregate.

But that big margin might take some getting.