COVENTRY'S totally depleted team rode with plenty of pride and commitment to give Eastbourne some nervous moments at Arlington.

With the Buildbase Bees missing their entire top five, and limited options for replacements, few would have put money on anything other than a runaway home victory.

The reality, however, was somewhat different as Bees capitalised on a number of Eagles errors and regular reserves Stan Burza and Andreas Messing turned in much-improved performances.

Messing won Heat 2 and Burza took a fine win in Heat 6 over Cameron Woodward and Lewis Bridger, as Bees managed to peg their deficit at four to six points for the majority of the meeting.

Unfortunately, their recent injury jinx extended to guest Steve Johnston, who was brought down by Bridger in Heat 10 and was only able to ride in the re-run of that race before withdrawing with a knock to the head.

It left Bees short in the closing stages and the Eagles wrapped up victory with a 5-1 from Woodward and Simon Gustafsson in Heat 14.

Not surprisingly, Fredrik Lindgren led the Coventry scorechart for the second night running, with Bees very thankful for the Wolves skipper's efforts on their behalf.

Their other guests all got stuck in as well, and Chris Schramm - a late replacement for Olly Allen - gained a most notable race win in Heat 11 when he defeated Arlington specialist Adam Shields.

EASTBOURNE 50: Bjarne Pedersen 15, Adam Shields 13+1, Cameron Woodward 9+2, Simon Gustafsson 8+1, Lewis Bridger 4+1, James Brundle 1+1, Lee Richardson r/r.

BUILDBASE BEES 40: Fredrik Lindgren 14, Stan Burza 7, Henning Bager 6, Andreas Messing 5+2, Chris Schramm 4+1, Steve Johnston 4+1, Chris Harris r/r.