ARLINGTON Eagles' Conventry King!!

COVENTRY S USA star Billy Hamill grabbed 17 points last Sunday in a 45-45 draw with the Eagles, who pulled in a late guest in the form of Belle Vue s Jason Lyons in place of Dean Barker.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Jul 2001, 18:16 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 22:52 BST

As Eastbourne were well beaten by Ipswich two weeks ago it was important for The Eagles to show their fans more of their true form. It started off well with a 5-1 in heat two with Marcus Andersson getting a great start and he led the field to the finishing line with his team-mate, Arena Essex s Shaun Tacey - Eastbourne s guest for Kylmakorpi - coming second.

Heat three saw another 5-1 for Eastbourne as Stefan Andersson flew off the start line and controlled the race from the front with Eagles second guest, Jason Lyons, who was in for the injured Dean Barker, coming second and The Bees Andres Jonsson coming in third.

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Heat four saw yet another 5-1 with Coventry s duo of Billy Hamill and Stuart Robson coming in one and two with David Norris coming in third.

Heat five was the best of the night with Lyons battling with Greg Hancock out in front. Hancock got a bad start and Lyons managed to take the lead but, with a great first turn from Hancock, it didn t last long when the Coventry star flew into top spot.

Lyons wasn t going to lay down, passing Hancock on the next lap, and he stayed in front for a 4-2 with Stefan Andersson coming third. Heat seven saw the last of the 5-1 s for The Eagles as Norris got a great start and never looked like he was going to be caught, going over the line in first place with Tacey just coming second.

After heat 11 the score was 38-28 and it appeared Eastbourne were heading for a match win. But, with Coventry manager Colin Pratt throwing in Hamill and Jonsson as tactical substitutes, the match again turned on its head and looked to be going down to the wireas The Bees took the twelfth 5-1.

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Then Hamill and Hancock, the wheelie team, stormed heat 13 for another 5-1.

Eastbourne now needed a 5-1 of their own to win, but only manages a 4-2 with Stefan Andersson coming in first, with a superb start, and Tacey in third. Heat 15 saw Hancock and Hamill out again with Coventry needing a 5-1 to draw the match. Hamill and Hancock got a great start and took the 5-1 for the draw, with the Eagles pairing picking up the minor places.

But it did look like the old Eagles with Jon Cook saying: We did well as a team to put ourselves in a position whereby we could not lose by heat 15. At the moment we don t have an answer to riders like Billy Hamill and Greg Hancock, but all in all we looked in a lot better shape then we did a week ago.

Scorers: Dugard (3+3), Werner 6, Lyons (7+1), S. Andersson 11, Norris 8, Tacey (5+2), M. Andersson 5.

qWorld and British Champion Mark Loram will be riding for The Eagles tomorrow (Saturday) in place of the injured Dean Barker.

Published: 31.5.01 Sussex Newspapers Ltd.

Related topics:Eastbourne