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HAT-TRICK
FOR ENGLAND
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.
England, Scotland & Northern Ireland
Teams
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
| England:
Chris Wrigley, Chris Thomas,
Mike Parnaby, Martin Hodds,Peter Thomas |
| Scotland:
Greg Dand, Mike Burns, Gareth Christie,
Steve Bennett, Robert Ramsay |
| Northern
Ireland: Kenny Beggs, Stuart
McIlroy, Eoin Adams |
CHRIS THOMAS
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION
Winner, Chris Thomas (England) and Runner-up,
Kenny Beggs (N.Ireland)
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
scoring late goals during the tournament, was
unable to do so this time, however, and Thomas
held on to win 3-2. Full Results
Individual Final: Kenny Beggs 2 Chris Thomas
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