Marcus Ellis and Heather Olver chalked up England's first win of the day as they booked their place in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles at the Yonex Irish International in Lisburn.

They defeated Denmark's Mikkel Elbjorn and Mie Schjoett-Kristensen 21-18 21-16 in the opening quarter-final. The England pair put in a strong surge from 16-16 to take the first game then dominated the second to clinch the win in 33 minutes.

In this afternoon's semi-finals they will face another Danish pair, Theis and Joan Christensen.

But Ellis reached a second semi-final when he and Peter Mills, who are unseeded,  defeated Denmark's third seeds Rasmus Bonde and Anders Kristiansen 21-17 12-21 21-12.

In the last four they will meet French second seeds Baptiste Careme and Sylvain Grosjean.

Not to be outdone, Olver reached her second semi-final when she and Mariana Agathangelou, the third seeds and 2010 runners-up, came back from a game down to beat Sweden's Sanne Ekberg and Amanda Hogstrom 13-21 21-14 21-8.

They will now face Danish top seeds Line Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke.

Scotland's Jillie Cooper and Kirsty Gilmour made a brave bid to join the England pair in the last four against second seeds Lotte Jonathans and Paulien van Dooremalen. But the Dutch pair just edged them out 24-22 21-18 despite the Scots holding two game points in the first game at 21-20 and 22-21.

England claimed another semi-finalist when Rajiv Ouseph defeated Finland's Ville Lang 21-17 21-15 in the battle of the third and fifth seeds.

He will now face Mathieu Lo Ying Ping and should be confident of making his second consecutive final, having beaten him emphatically on the way to the Scottish International title in Glasgow two weeks ago. That extended his head-to-head record to three straight-games wins over the Frenchman.

The other semi-final will be between second seed Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland and Dutch eighth seed Dicky Palyama.

To follow the results check out www.tournamentsoftware.com or follow the action by logging on to badmintoneurope.tv