Vienna, Oct 25: England stood within a point of reaching Men’s World Squash Team Championship final in Vienna as Lee Beachill advanced to 7-1 in fifth game of a deciding second string semifinal rubber against Gregory Gaultier of France, only to see chance fade away into a tiebreak that former European Junior Champion clinched at second attempt with a backhand drop short.

Beachill’s 105 minute 9/4 1/9 10/8 1/9 10/9 defeat came after Nick Matthew, had launched England’s attack with a 43 minute 9-7 9-3 9-2 win over Jean-Michel Arcucci at third string but Peter Nicol, World No1 seemingly depleted after a 99 minute battle with Canada’s Jonathan Power only 18 hours earlier, lost to Thierry Lincou 8-10 9/4 9/7 9/2 in 76 minute first string rubber.

It is a double first for the French to defeat an England team and reach final of World Team Championship. Their best previous position in the event was fifth place they achieved with same squad at Melbourne two years ago.

Wales stopped Hong Kong’s record breaking progress to advance in play-offs towards fifth place, but Scotland fell at same stage to Canada. Ireland lost to Pakistan in play-offs towards ninth place.

Results (semifinal)

France 2 England 1 (French names first): Thierry Lincou bt Peter Nicol 8-10, 9-4, 9-7, 9-2; Gregory Gaultier bt Lee Beachill 4-9, 9-1, 8-10,9-1, 10-9, Jean-Michel Arcucci lost to Nick Matthew 7-9, 3-9, 2-9

5-8 Place Play-offs: Wales 3 Hong Kong 0: Alex Gough bt Wong Wai Hang, David Evans bt Dick Lau, Gavin Jones bt Roger Ngan.

Canada 2 Scotland 1: Jonathon Power bt John White, Graham Ryding bt Martin Heath, Viktor Berg lost to Neil Frankland.

9-12 Place Play-offs: South Africa 3 Netherlands 0; Rodney Durbach bt Tommy Berden, Craig Van de Wath bt Lucas Buit, Gregory La Mude bt Michael Fiteni.

Pakistan 2 Ireland 1: Mansoor Zaman bt Derek Ryan, Farrukh Zaman lost to John Rooney, Majid Khan bt Graeme Stewart.

13-16 Place Play-offs: Malaysia 2 Germany 1: Ong Beng Hee bt Simon Frenz, Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Stefan Leifels, Timothy Arnold lost to Oliver Post.

Switzerland 2 Sweden 1: Lars Harms lost to Christian Drakenberg, Marco Dtwyler bt Badr Abdel Aziz, Andre Holderegger bt Joakim Karlsson.

17-20 Place Play-offs: Italy 2 Kuwait 1: Andrea Capella lost to Bader A Alhosaini, Francesco Busi bt Ali B Alramezi, Andrea Torricini bt Abdullah Almezayem.

New Zealand 3 USA 0: Glen Wilson bt Preston Quick, Daniel Sharplin bt Damian Walker, Callum O’Brien bt Jamie Crombie.

21-24 Place Play-offs: Hungary 3 Japan 0 Andras Torok bt Kimihiko Sano, Mark Krajcsak bt Takehide Nishio, Sandor Fulop bt Takeshi Aoyama.

Austria 2 Czech Republic 1: Leopold Czaska lost to Jan Koukal, Clemens Wallishauser bt Milos Pokorny, Andreas Fuchs bt Martin Stepan.

25-28 Place Play-offs: Finland 3 Bermudas 0: Olli Tuominen bt Nicholas Kyme, James Stout Juha Raumolin bt James Stout, Matias Tuomi bt Sam Stevens.

Slovenia 2 Korea 1: Damir Bezan lost to Yong-Chun

Chong, Klemen Gutman bt Dong-Woo, Miha Kavas bt Jaung-Gue Park.

29/30 Place Play-offs: Mexico 3 Russia 0: Eric Galvez bt Alexey Severinov, Armando Zarazua bt Serguei Kostrykine, Mauricio Sanchez bt Maxim Shokin.—PPI