Singapore and India booked their places in the Men’s Team final at the Commonwealth Championships on Friday 22nd May 2009, following victories in their final group stage matches in the splendid surroundings of the Scotstoun Sports Campus in the heart of Glasgow.

In devastating style, Singapore beat Canada to assure themselves of first place in the group with the trio of Yang Zi, Gao Ning and Cai Xiao Li proving too strong from Pradeeban Peter-Paul, Homatoun Kamkar-Parsi and Xavier Therien. However, the route to the final for India was less convincing.

They succeeded with a thrilling victory against a spirited England team with the two young men from Middlesbrough outstanding.

Middlesbrough
At the moment their football team might be in all sorts of trouble in the English Premier Division but there table tennis players are in good shape.

Paul Drinkhall, the England no.1, beat both Soubhajit saha and Sharath Kamal Achanta in three straight games whilst colleague Danny Reed rose to the occasion. He played at a level that belied his world ranking of no.403, to extend both Achanta and Saha the full five games distance.

Brave Effort
It was a brave performance but it ended in sadness, it was defeat for England; the one other Indian success being the win of Sourav Chakroborty over Andrew Rushton in the third match of the contest.

Chakroborty won in four games.

Wales
India and Singapore now contest the gold medal whilst for England and Wales it is bronze.

Wales represented by Adam Robertson, Ryan Jenkins and Steven Jenkins beat the South African team of Shane Overmeyer, Theo Cogill and Luke Abrahams by three matches to nil.

Image by Ayoade Ademakinwa