Badminton: Cotrill and Quinn capture decider

Neil Cottrill and John Quinn completed a 3-2 victory for England over China at St Austell last night, to put the hosts 3-1 ahead in the series with two to play.

England, confirming the promise of a young squad, were given a fine start by teenager Sarah Hardaker, in her first match of the tour, who teamed up with the level-headed Quinn to win the mixed doubles. Hardaker, excellent at the net, looked far more confident than when making her England debut last season, and she and Quinn outplayed Yan Wei and Qian Hong 15-6, 15- 5.

England looked as though they might go two up, for Joanne Muggeridge led 9-2 in the first game, and looked twice the player since shedding two stone. However, she slowed in the second game and the 16-year-old Zhu Yunyi recovered to win 12-10, 11-5.

Sun Quan, a pop singer whose music was played as he came on to the court, tired even more dramatically in the men's singles. The Chinese player led 14-10 in the final game and held two match-points against the former European champion Darren Hall, who fought back determinedly to win 12- 15, 15-7, 17-16.

That put England 2-1 up but China levelled the scores by winning the women's doubles before Cottrill and Quinn captured the decider, scoring their second win in two encounters on the tour by 18-14, 15-2 against Zhu Feng and Ji Xinpeng.