After losing in last year’s semi-finals following 32 successive title successes, England fought their way back into the women’s final of the European Team Championships after a 3/0 victory over Ireland in Espoo, Finland. The 3rd seeds will met top seeds Netherlands in the final – but the title-holders dropped the opening match against France when French No1 Camille Serme beat former world champion Vanessa Atkinson in straight games. Dutch champion Natalie Grinham restored order with a 3/0 win over Isabelle Stoehr before 3rd string Orla Noom (pic front) played one of the games of her life by fighting back from 0-2 down to beat France’s Coline Aumard (pic back) to take Netherlands into their 9th successive final. England reached the men’s final for the 19th year in a row with a comprehensive 4/0 win over Netherlands. The defending champions will meet France for the fourth successive year after the 2nd seeds defeated first-time semi-finalists Italy 4/0.
