Betty Bird and David Mahabir struck gold to lead the England medal-winning honours at the European Veterans’ Championships in Budapest.

Australia-based Bird was the first to clinch gold, alongside Marianne Blasberg of Germany in the WD85 class, played as a round-robin event.

She then doubled up by claiming the WS85 gold, beating her doubles partner in the final by a scoreline of  3-0 (11-2, 11-9, 11-5).

Mahabir, English-born and now living in Canada, won the MS65 category, enjoying a 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-5) victory over Estonia’s Rein Lindmae in the final.

There was silver for Marjorie Dawson & Diane Pearce in the WD70, beaten in the final by German pair Hannelore Dillenberger & Christel Locher in three straight (11-4, 11-3, 11-4). The English pair had edged through a tight semi-final against another German combination, Marianne Kerwat & Ursula Kruger, winning it 3-2 (13-11, 8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10).

Bronzes went to Sylvia Tyler and Penny Perry, who were both beaten by German opponents in the semi-finals of, respectively, the WS80 and WS70 classes.

There was bronze also for Sally Bax & Margaret Dignum in the WD75 category as they were defeated 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-4) in the semi-finals by Rosi Berg & Karin Rauscher of Germany.

In the consolation events, there was an all-England final in the WS80 class and it went to a decider before Janet Hunt took the gold ahead of Audrey Robinson, courtesy of a 3-2 (11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7) scoreline.

Joe Kennedy won gold in the MD60 consolation, alongside Hubert Micheluzzi of Austria. They beat the Cyprus-Turkey combination of Fadil Olguner & Ferit Atabey 3-1 (5-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-8).

Ki Cheung Yuen was runner-up in the MS65 consolation, conceding the final to Jaroslav Hofman (CZE).

Of the other home nations, Scotland’s Geoff Salter picked up silver in the MS70, losing the final 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5) to Niels Ramberg of Denmark.