Monday

LEEDS teenager Sarah Milne inspired an England fightback at the European Junior Championships in Finland today – but all in vain.

The England Under 19 women’s singles champion went on to court with England trailing 2-0 in their quarter-final with Ukraine, having seed Matthew Nottingham and Helena Lewczynska lose the opening mixed doubles and Toby Penty fall in a close singles battle.

Nottingham and Lewczynska lost to Gennadiy Natarov and Yuliya Kazarinova 21-17 21-17 and Penty went down 21-19 21-19 in the tightest of contests against Artem Pochtarev. Penty recovered from 17-10 down to draw level at 18-18 in the opener and led 17-15 in the second game but both games slipped from his grasp.

Enter Milne to start the recovery with a determined 21-13 21-15 win over Natalya Voytsekh.

Nottingham and Chris Coles then took on Natarov and Pochtarev looking to avenge the singles and mixed doubles defeat in the men’s doubles. The England pair got off to a fine start by taking the opener 21-14. But the Ukraine pair took control of the second and levelled the contest at 21-12.

That meant England had to win the next game to stay in the match and they were right in there up to 9-9 in the decider. Then the Ukraine pair put in a decisive five-point surge and eventually took the contest 21-16 in the longest match of the tie at 43 minutes.

Coach Martin Andrew said: "It was a disappointing defeat for the team.

"We felt the boys' doubles was a match we should have won. Chris and Matthew started well but couldn't maintain the momentum.

"We didn't start the match well. Matthew and Helena didn't play at their best level and that was all the Ukrainian pair needed to take their opportunity.

"Toby showed glimses of the very high level of play he is capable of in the singles but just couldn't edge in front and at 2-0 down we had a lot to do.

"Sarah's match was full of long rallies and she needed to remain patient. She put in a solid performance to reduce the deficit but it wasn't enough."

The England players must now cast aside their disappointment as they prepare for tomorrow’s start of the individual tournament.

Sunday

England finished top of Group 4 at the European Junior Championships in Helsinki after beating Croatia 5-0 in Helsinki this afternoon.

That followed up 5-0 wins over Cyprus and Romania and meant England won every contest in all three matches without dropping a single game in any of the contests.

In the quarter-finals tomorrow morning England will face Ukraine.

Chris Coles and Jessica Fletcher made a slow start in their mixed doubles before winning confortably 21-12 21-9 against Filip Spoljarec and Lucija Viah.

Toby Penty was made to remain focused in his singles before beating Josip Uglesic 21-16 21-9. Penty was troubled at times by the fluctuating levels of his opponent's play.

But no such probelms for Sarah Milne, whoi scored any easy 21-6 21-12 win against Kataria Jagodic, playing her first match in the hall, and that result gave England a winning lead.

Coles returned to the court to partner Matthew Nottingham to a clinical victory over Spoljarec and Ivan Tucakovic 21-8 21-9.

And their 16-minute win didn't give Milne much of a breather before she and Fletcher completed the 5-0 triumph by winnign the doubles 21-14 21-14 despite struggling a little in the opening game against Viah and Martina Skorup.

Quarter-final line-up (10am Monday): Netherlands v Germany, Ukraine v England, Turkey v Russia. Semi-finals (5pm): Denmark are already through to semi-finals as top seeds.

Saturday

England scored their second victory in a row at the European Junior Championships in Helsinki today when they won the first three rubbers of their Group 4 clash with Romania.

Team coach Martin Andrew selected all the players who sat out the opening win over Cyprus to ensure every one of the 11 squad members got a contest under their belt in the first two fixtures.

Matthew Nottingham and Helena Lewczynska, the English National Under 19 mixed doubles champions, got England off to a winning start by beating Dan Ilin and Alexandra Stefan 21-6 21-7 in just 13 minutes.

Then Junior Nationala singles champion Toby Penty (top picture) raced past Alexander Blanita 21-10 21-8 in 17 minutes.

National Under 19 women's singles champion Sarah Milne, the Leeds teenager who was fourth in the Youth Olympics last summer, was expecting a tough test against Sonia Olariu. But she handled the task well to give England a winning lead with a 21-13 21-15 victory.

That took the pressure off Peter Briggs and Ryan McCarthy as they took on Ilin and Andreas Niemersheim and they eased to a 21-8 21-13 win. For McCarthy that was a winning debut at Under 19 level.

Lewczynska and Hayley Rogers were last on court against Stefan and Sabina Balut in the third doubles contest and they completed the 5-0 rout 21-13 21-15 in a tie lasting a total of 91 on-court minutes.

Friday

England were a team in a hurry tonight as they began their European Junior Championships campaign with a 5-0 win over Cyprus in Helsinki’s Vantaan Energia Arena.

The whole contest took just 83 minutes with Chris Coles clocking up two wins in the space of 29 on-court minutes.

Joshua Green, the England Under 19 runner-up, wasted no time putting England ahead with a 21-7 21-6 win over Andreas Fragkou in just 17 minutes. But Panuga Riou, another National runner-up, was a minute quicker in toppling Stella Knekna 21-7 21-9 in the women's singles.

Coles scored his first win with doubles partner Matthew Nottingham when the national champions needed only 15 minutes to dispose of Fragkou and George Nicolaou 21-3 21-6 to give England a winning lead.

Then it was the turn of Helena Lewczynska and Hayley Rogers to get the better of Knekna and Maria Avraamidou 21-12 21-15 in the longest match, lasting 21 minutes.

Coles was back on court with Jessica Fletcher to complete the 5-0 victory by taking the mixed doubles against Nicolaou and Afrodite Christodoulou 21-6 21-8 in a quickfire 14 minutes.

The Avon player was the only England team member to play twice while Cyprus had three players tackling two matches.

England play Romania in tomorrow’s second Group Four match (6pm) and face Croatia on Sunday (2pm).

The top team in each of the groups go through to the knockout quarter-finals on Monday and the team event runs until Tuesday, to be followed by the individual championships.

England’s squad is: Peter Briggs, Chris Coles, Joshua Green, Ryan McCarthy, Matthew Nottingham, Toby Penty; Jessica Fletcher, Helena Lewczynska, Sarah Milne, Panuga Riou, Hayley Rogers.

Follow the results on www.tournamentsoftware.com or watch it on www.badmintoneurope.tv