With the eyes of a nation fixed on the sodden Showground, Panthers scripted their first Elite League triumph of the 2008 season - condemning highly-rated Eastbourne to a first defeat in the process.

The Eagles trimmed up the city men by a whopping 24 points only 10 days earlier, but things were very different at Alwalton as Trevor Swales' troops did the business (well the majority of them anyway).

The hardy few hundred that resisted a night of sport-hopping on the sofa were handsomely rewarded with some truly exciting speedway that lifted the gloom provided by some most unwelcome rainclouds.

They hung around for a while as well to create really testing conditions and make Panthers' already difficult task a whole lot tougher, but there was no stopping the city side.

Plenty of experts (ace Sky pundit Kelvin Tatum among them) reckoned this had all the makings of another bad night for Panthers, but captain Hans Andersen, reserve talent Claus Vissing and the rest had other ideas.

Those two were the main sources of success as Panthers proved they will be no pushovers around their own shale at least, but this was by no means a perfect speedway production with a couple of the usual Panthers suspects again struggling.

Kenneth Bjerre again failed to solve his starting issues while second string Sam Simota managed to play his part in a match-winning heat 14 effort despite being plagued by a shortage of power again.

While Tatum's tip left him with egg on his face, another Alwalton visitor more renowned for political excellence than speedway expertise got it spot on.

The city's first lady, mayor Marion Todd, is a big Panthers fan and was thrilled to see her boys shine through.

"I always knew you would come good," Cllr Todd told the city seven after the dust had settled on this spectacular - and what an inspired gut instinct that proved to be.

Morten Risager led home Andersen for a first heat maximum but that was soon cancelled out when Simota and Bjerre flopped in the third race.

Panthers fell behind again following heat five when only a final bend error from Lewis Bridger stopped Eastbourne from grabbing a maximum.

But the 4-2 secured by Chris Harris' victory gave them an edge that was immediately wiped out by a 4-2 from the Andersen/Risager combination.

Again Eastbourne responded by hitting the front in this ding-dong battle as past Panthers man Lee Richardson looked comfortable in the awkward conditions, but the real turning point arrived in heat eight.

Eagles man Lewis Bridger was excluded for causing Risager's third spectacular back-straight smash of the season, but far more damage was done to the visitors' challenge than the seemingly bionic Panthers man as he followed home Vissing for a 5-1 in the re-run that gave the hosts a 25-23 advantage.