England’s men took the silver medal in the team competition at the Commonwealth Championships in India today, missing out on gold in the final match against the hosts, while the women won bronze.
David McBeath put England in front in the final, coming from 2-0 down to beat Harmeet Desai and temporarily silencing a fervent crowd in Surat. But Soumyajit Ghosh beat Helshan Weerasinghe to tie things up and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran moved the hosts to within one match of gold by overcoming Tom Jarvis.
And it was Ghosh who sealed it for the Indians when he bear McBeath in four.
Earlier, Weerasinghe won the crucial fifth rubber as England beat Singapore 3-2 to earn their place in the gold medal match. England had not previously dropped a match at the tournament, but it was always likely to prove more difficult against Singapore. However, McBeath got them off to the perfect start with a four-game win over Feng Chen.
But two victories for Hu Li against Weerasinghe and McBeath, either side of a 3-1 win for Tom Jarvis against Clarence Chew, saw the overall result hinge on Weerasinghe’s clash with Chen. And the young Englishman showed his mettle to come from 1-0 and 2-1 behind to seal it 11-7 in the fifth and guarantee at least silver for the English team.
Singapore beat Northern Ireland 3-0 in the play-off for third, Scotland beat South Africa to take fifth, and Sri Lanka finished seventh, ahead of Trinidad & Tobago. Cyprus were ninth, Wales 10th, New Zealand 11th and Jersey 12th.
In the women’s event, England lost their semi-final 3-1 to the hosts, with Maria Tsaptsinos picking up the English point. It put them into the bronze match against Wales, who they had beaten 3-2 earlier in the competition.
Wales struck first as Charlotte Carey beat Tin-Tin Ho – who was struggling with injury – 3-1. But Tsaptsinos levelled by beating Chloe Thomas and Karina Le Fevre put England in front when she overcame Megan Phillips. That left Tsaptsinos to seal third place by beating Carey 11-9 in the fifth, having seen her opponent battle back from two games down to level.
Sri Lanka finished fifth, Cyrpus sixth, South Africa seventh, Northern Ireland eighth and Trinidad & Tobago ninth.
Results
Men’s Team
Second stage – Group E
England 3 Trinidad & Tobago 0
Helshan Weerasinghe bt Arun Roopnarine 3-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-2)
Tom Jarvis bt Aaron Wilson 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-2)
David McBeath bt Yuvraaj Dookram 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-8)
England 3 South Africa 0
McBeath bt Kurt Lingeveldt 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-7)
Weerasinghe bt Terrence Mathole 3-0 (11-4, 14-12, 11-5)
Jarvis bt Keegan Lingeveldt 3-2 (11-3, 12-14, 9-11, 11-1, 11-5)
England 3 Singapore 2
McBeath bt Feng Chen 3-1 (11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9)
Hu Li bt Weerasinghe 3-1 (11-3, 11-13, 11-8, 11-8)
Jarvis bt Zhe Yu Clarence Chew 3-1 (11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 11-5)
Li bt McBeath 3-1 (11-2, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9)
Weerasinghe bt Chen 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7)
Final
India 3 England 1
McBeath bt Harmeet Desai 3-2 (9-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9)
Soumyajit Ghosh bt Weerasinghe 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-7)
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran bt Jarvis 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-5)
Ghosh bt McBeath 3-1 (11-6, 11-13, 11-9, 11-8)
Women’s Team
Second stage – Group E
Singapore 3 England 1
Ye Lin bt Maria Tsaptsinos 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-6)
Yihan Zhou bt Tin-Tin Ho 3-0 (11-8, 14-12, 11-7)
Karina Le Fevre bt Wanling Zhang 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-1)
Lin bt Ho 3-1 (11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9)
England 3 Sri Lanka 0
Le Fevre bt Ishara Madurangi 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-7)
Ho bt Erandi Warusawithana 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8)
Tsaptsinos bt Ruvini Kannangara 3-0 (11-2, 11-8, 11-4)
Semi-finals
India 3 England 1
Manika Batra bt Le Fevre 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-6)
Ankita Das bt Ho 3-1 (12-10, 3-11, 12-10, 11-9)
Tsaptsinos bt Shamini Kumaresan 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-7)
Batra bt Ho 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-7)
Bronze medal match
England 3 Wales 1
Charlotte Carey bt Ho 3-1 (11-9, 11-13, 11-4, 11-8)
Tsaptsinos bt Chloe Thomas 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-4)
Le Fevre bt Megan Phillips 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-8)
Tsaptsinos bt Carey 3-2 (11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 7-11, 11-9)