HAT-TRICK FOR ENGLAND

England win Team Event for 3rd time ... Thomas beats Beggs 3-2 in Individual Final

England: Mike Parnaby, Martin Hodds, Chris Wrigley, Chris Thomas, Peter Thomas

England won the UK & Ireland team title for the 3rd consecutive year but they were pushed hard by host nation, Scotland, who finished on equal points but had a lesser games won/lost ratio.

In a three-way round robin, the countries played each other twice. Northern Ireland were hampered by an incomplete squad so were never in the running. The Scots beat the English 2-1 in their first meeting. Northern Ireland took more games off Scotland than England, which left the English needing a victory in their second encounter with Scotland. It was a tense final session - Scotland's Gareth Christie beat Martin Hodds and England's Peter Thomas won 3-0 in a contentious match with Greg Dand. The other two games were finely balanced all the way, with England pair Chris Wrigley and Chris Thomas just holding on to narrow wins against Bennett and Burns to clinch a 3-1 team victory and, with it, their 3rd UK & Ireland title. Full Results

CHRIS THOMAS INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION

Chris Thomas won the Individual title - but not without a fight. He scraped through the 'group of death' in third place behind Kenny Beggs and Greg Dand, before beating his brother, Peter, 1-0, in the quarter-finals. He hit form in the semi-final with a 4-0 victory against Scotland's Gareth Christie, to earn a re-match with Beggs in the first non all-English final since the competition began in 2004. The pair had drawn 1-1 in their group but, this time, Thomas took an early 3-0 lead and was looking comfortable before Beggs pulled one back with half-time approaching and scored a second a few minutes after the break to ensure a nervy finish for Thomas. Beggs, who had made a habit of

Individual Final: K.Beggs (NI) 2 C.Thomas (Eng) 3