CHENNAI, Dec 11: Within 24 hours of lifting the World Individual crown in devastating style, James Willstrop was twice back in action for top seeds England in the defence of their title in the Men’s World Junior Team Squash Championships here Tuesday.

England comfortably beat ninth seeds Canada 2-1 and then Switzerland 3-0, though squad No2 Peter Barker, runner-up to his team-mate in the previous day’s final, conceded his match against Canada’s Robin Clarke after one game as a precaution with a slight muscle pull in his leg.

Pakistan too made a fine start winning both their matches by the identical 3-0 margin over Hong Kong and USA in pool B.

The highlight of the first qualifying rounds, certainly for the home crowd, was India beating Malaysia for the first time in 10 years.

Major Maniam, the former Malaysian national toach now with India, may well not appear in any Malaysian honours list now for some time to come after his new team, seeded five, beat Malaysia 3-0.

Siddarth Suchde was ruthless at No1, disposing of Timothy Arnold 9-1 9-1 9-1 - an excellent result as Arnold was a 9/16 seed in the individual event. Saurav Ghosal had a long hard match but eventually wore down his opponent and in a long third match Gaurav Nandrajog eventually made it a clean sweep for India.

Results: 1st qualifying rounds:

Pool A: England bt Canada 2-1 (James Willstrop bt Brian Ernst 9-4, 10-8, 9-2; Peter Barker lost to Robin Clarke 2-9 ret.; Ashley Flathers bt Brad Jones 9-2, 9-2, 9-2); Wales bt Ireland 3-0 (Rob Sutherland bt Brian Byrne 9-0, 9-5, 9-2; Jethro Binns bt Arthur Gaskin 9-2, 9-4, 9-4 Lewys Hurst bt Dermot MacNamara 9-1, 9-1, 9-4) England bt Switzerland 3-0 (James Willstrop bt Manuel Grima 9-6, 9-2, 9-0; Jon Harford bt Diego Staub 10-8, 9-6, 9-1; Ashley Flathers bt Mirco Marsella 9-1, 9-0, 9-0) Canada bt Ireland 3-0 (Brian Ernst bt Brian Byrne 3-9, 8-9, 9-7, 9-2, 9-4; Robin Clarke bt Arthur Gaskin 9-4, 10-8, 9-3; Brad Jones bt Ross Lillis 9-5, 9-1, 9-4)