![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Coach-Carlo-Agnello-and-England-bench.jpg\")
Coach Carlo Agnello and Tin-Tin Ho and England bench<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13, 2025 | Paul Stimpson<\/p>\n
England dug deep to defeat fourth seeds Portugal to get their European Championships campaign off to a superb start.<\/p>\n
Tom Jarvis, Paul Drinkhall and Sam Walker (pictured above) all won once to leave Portugal\u2019s Joao Geraldo empty-handed despite a gutsy double.<\/p>\n
The match also answered (at least based on this sample size) the question of whether left-handers or right-handers are best, England\u2019s righties sinking a trio of Portuguese southpaws.<\/p>\n
Geraldo (WR 109) made a blistering start in the first match, going on the attack from the off and winning the first 11-4.<\/p>\n
Walker (WR 182) started to counter-attack to good effect in the second, keeping pace with his opponent before saving a game point and then levelling up the match, 12-10.<\/p>\n
That pattern of attack and counter-attack continued in the third, Geraldo leading 5-1 but taking his timeout as Walker closed to 7-6 behind. It was nicely poised at 9-9 but it was Geraldo who took the next two.<\/p>\n
Walker\u2019s timeout came at 5-2 down in the fourth and he worked his way back to 6-6 with some clever positional play. But he could never get a lead and Geraldo saw it out 11-9.<\/p>\n
Jarvis was up against 17-year-old Tiago Abiodun and, for the first time in these championships in either men\u2019s or women\u2019s competition, the England player was higher-ranked than their opponent.<\/p>\n
It went as expected, Jarvis occasionally trailing by a point or two but always with a measure of control and on top at the end of games as he closed out a 3-0 win, with every scoreline 11-8.<\/p>\n
Drinkhall (WR 382) versus Joao Monteiro (WR 221) saw a big gap on paper but perhaps not reflecting the players\u2019 true levels.<\/p>\n
Monteiro took the first 12-10 and led the second 3-0, at which point Drinkhall took his timeout. Whatever was said, from that moment on, the Englishman was on fire \u2013 and at times unplayable. He raced through from 4-6 to 11-6 to level the match, and powered through 11-4 in the third.<\/p>\n
The fourth was a bit closer and Monteiro was behind 6-5 when he took his timeout. But Drinkhall was not to be stopped. He brought up match points with a dead net cord \u2013 though his brilliant play merited a little reward. He took his second chance as Monteiro\u2019s receive went into the net, and England led 2-1.<\/p>\n
Match four turned into quite a battle as Geraldo took on Jarvis. After only four points of the match, Geraldo was complaining about the Jarvis serve, and the referee was called.<\/p>\n
That came to nothing, though Jarvis was warned later in the game and would go on to have one fault called in the third.<\/p>\n
Jarvis won the first 12-10 having saved a game point, but Geraldo hit back to take the second. Jarvis moved back in front, having to contend with a lengthy debate about a wet ball when he went 9-6 up \u2013 he ended up winning the replayed point too.<\/p>\n
The match arguably turned on the Portuguese timeout in the fourth, taken when 6-5 down. Geraldo won five successive points from then to turn the game around.<\/p>\n
Jarvis led the decider 5-2 at the turn-around, took his timeout at 5-4 and trailed 5-7. He worked his way back to 8-8 but Geraldo, bristling with aggression, won the next three points to level the match at 2-2.<\/p>\n
And so it came down to Walker versus Abiodun and the Englishman started like a train, leading 8-1 and finally winning the first 11-7 as the youngster clawed back.<\/p>\n
Abiodun kept the momentum going, leading 9-6 and then closing it out 11-9 in the second, having taken his timeout at 9-8.<\/p>\n
But Walker took charge from 3-3 in the third, opening up a three point gap which he maintained as the players exchanged points to 9-6, and then clinching the game 11-7.<\/p>\n
The pattern repeated in the fourth, from 3-3 to 6-3 and then on to 9-6. And two points later it was all over as the England bench leapt to their feet in celebration.<\/p>\n
England now play Greece \u2013 who lost 3-1 to Portugal yesterday, in the final group match at 9am UK time tomorrow.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, England\u2019s women were defeated 3-0 by seventh seeds and host nation Croatia.<\/p>\n
With every Croatia player ranked significantly higher than their English counterparts, it was always a tall order for England to get anything out of the match.<\/p>\n
However, Tin-Tin Ho raised hopes of striking an early blow as she took the first game 11-8 against world No 72 Lea Rakovac, fighting back from 6-3 down.<\/p>\n
The next two games followed an almost identical pattern as Rakovac forced an early lead and maintained it to the finish line as she got her nose in front.<\/p>\n
Ho (WR 247) took her timeout at 1-4 in the fourth but it was to no avail as Rakovac brought up six match points and, although Ho saved two, the Croatian completed her 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n
Tianer Yu (WR 290) started a little nervously against Hana Arapovic (WR 111) in match two and lost the first four points. She fought back and at 4-6, could have got into the game \u2013 only for her opponent to win the next five points.<\/p>\n
The second was tight throughout and Yu was the first to bring up a game point at 10-9. However, the chance could not be taken and Arapovic ruthlessly took her own first chance.<\/p>\n
Yu led the third 6-0 but was forced to take her timeout as Arapovic fought back to 6-3. The Croatian led 8-7 and then 10-8. Yu saved the first match point but not the second.<\/p>\n
Jasmin Wong (WR 806) had the double challenge of facing a player much higher than her and a defender \u2013 Ivana Malobabic (WR 118).<\/p>\n
Wong started positively and led 5-2 but again England\u2019s opponent ruthlessly exposed the gap in class as Malobabic reeled off eight points in a row and went on to win the first 11-7.<\/p>\n
Thereafter it was a bit of a procession as a frustrated Wong could only win six points across the remaining two games and England\u2019s fate was sealed.<\/p>\n
Their remaining match in Group G is against Italy, the ninth-ranked team, at noon on Tuesday UK time.<\/p>\n
Wales began their campaign with a 3-0 defeat to top seeds Romania in Group A, despite Anna Hursey almost turning around her match against Andreea Dragoman, who eventually won 3-2 (12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9). Adina Diaconu bear Charlotte Carey in four in the opening match and Elizabeta Samara completed victory with a 3-0 win over Danielle Kelly. <\/p>\n
Coach Carlo Agnello and Tin-Tin Ho and England bench<\/p>\n
Results<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s Group G Men\u2019s Group D
Croatia 3 England 0<\/strong>
Lea Rakovac bt Tin-Tin Ho 3-1 (8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6)
Hana Arapovic bt Tianer Yu 3-0 (11-4, 12-10, 11-9)
Ivana Malobabic bt Jasmin Wong 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-2)<\/p>\n
England 3 Portugal 2<\/strong>
Joao Geraldo bt Sam Walker 3-1 (11-4, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9)
Tom Jarvis bt Tiago Abiodun 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-8)
Paul Drinkhall bt Joao Monteiro 3-1 (10-12, 11-6, 11-4, 11-7)
Geraldo bt Jarvis 3-2 (10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8)
Jarvis bt Adiodun 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 13, 2025 | Paul Stimpson England dug deep to defeat fourth seeds Portugal to get their European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,163243,163244,148107,163245,163246,163247,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-496222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-jasmin-wong","12":"tag-paul-drinkhall","13":"tag-sam-walker","14":"tag-tianer-yu","15":"tag-tin-tin-ho","16":"tag-tom-jarvis","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115367089474757814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}