WOLVERHAMPTON kept up their highly encouraging start to the new season by taking a league point from a close contest at Arlington.

Recent visits to the South coast venue have not proved profitable for the Parrys International Wolves, but on this occasion they recovered from a sluggish start to give their hosts a massive scare.

Wolves led by a single point with two heats to go, only for the Eagles to edge a 4-2 in Heat 14 and home No.1 Bjarne Pedersen then got the better of Freddie Lindgren and Tai Woffinden in the decider.

The visitors were up against it early on when they conceded 5-1s in each of the first two races, with Woffinden’s Heat 5 victory becoming their first race win of the night.

They narrowed the early deficit to four points only to see it extended to ten via a Heat 8 5-1 from Timo Lahti and Denis Gizatullin, with the home side scoring well at reserve.

But Lindgren won a tactical ride in Heat 9 with brother Ludvig third to halve the gap, and then the younger Lindgren secured a shock 5-1 in Heat 11 with Woffinden over Adam Shields and Lukas Dryml to bring Wolves right back into contention.

Dryml, who remarkably rode in each of the last five races, won Heat 12 but missed out to Freddie Lindgren for third place in Heat 13 as Wolves moved in front with Woffinden taking the flag.

But Dryml returned to win Heat 14 with Cameron Woodward holding Ludvig Lindgren at bay to put the Eagles back ahead in a see-saw encounter, before Pedersen took the honours in the finale.

But it is still a more than useful away point for Wolves, who move up to second place in the early Elite League table ahead of Monday’s Monmore showdown with Poole.

EASTBOURNE 47: Bjarne Pedersen 13, Lukas Dryml 12, Cameron Woodward 8, Denis Gizatullin 7+2, Timo Lahti 5+1, Adam Shields 2, Simon Gustafsson 0.

WOLVERHAMPTON 46: Freddie Lindgren 14, Tai Woffinden 10+2, Ludvig Lindgren 8+1, Ricky Wells 5+3, Jacob Thorssell 5, Adam Skornicki 4, Ty Proctor r/r.