GCWTC: Tier 1: Day 4: England trail Egypt 2-4
[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent
at Surbiton
18th May 2016
(World Championship)
The expected rain duly arrived, but, apart from one heavy downpour which lasted about 10 minutes, there was no interruption to play.
The best of 13 semi-finals started with two doubles matches. Playing Egypt, Steven Mulliner and new cap Tobi Savage won theirs, but Lionel Tibble and Rachel Rowe lost, both in 3 games. Four reverse singles followed, in which Lionel beat the Egyptian number one, Ahmed Nasr, but we lost the other three to end the day trailing 2-4.
In the other semi-final, New Zealand won both their doubles against Ireland, though only after losing the first game in each match; the singles had yet to finish when the author left to go ringing.
In the plate, Sweden beat South Africa to record their first win; USA beat Wales; but Ian Burridge, for Wales, won the final game of the pegged down match against South Africa to draw their test match 3-3.
Tomorrow, Thursday, the semi-finals and plate block should both finish, to leave the final and play-offs for the minor places, including the important relegation battle, for the final two days.