In a blaze of inevitable fireworks, artificial snow showers and a party loud enough to shake Ayres Rock, the 18th Commonwealth Games came to a spectacular close.

Prince Edward performed the formal ceremony and Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie were among the dignitaries, while 51-year-old shooter Nick Gault was given the honour of carrying the England flag.

He had broken the all-time Games record for an Englishman with 15 medals, four here including two silver and gold in the 25m standard pistol.

Double gold-medal swimmer Gregor Tait carried the Scotland flag with weightlifter Michaela Breeze performing the duties for Wales and David Beattie for Northern Ireland.

India's Samaresh Jung, a 35-year-old shooter who won five golds, a silver and a bronze, was named the most outstanding athlete of the Games amid a ceremony of celebration for Melbourne.

And, as protocol dictates, the Commonwealth Games ceremonial flag was officially handed over to India who will host the Games in four years' time.

"It will be a hard act to follow," said Michael Fennell, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation. "But we have every confidence the bar will be raised again in 2010."

So ended a Games lapped up by the locals and turned into an Australia-fest by host broadcaster Channel Nine, but which lacked big personalities and big performances.

There were exceptions and many of them could be seen in the Melbourne Aquatics Centre where swimmers from Britain struck sparkling metal by the sackload.

We hoped with Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett absent England would be the beneficiaries but the style with which Simon Burnett won the men's 100m freestyle, Rebecca Cooke the 800m freestyle and Mel Marshall landed six medals was truly uplifting.

Wales, too, have the memory of David Davies powering home in the 1500m to win the first Welsh swimming gold for 32 years.

But it was with Scotland where hope turned to fantasy. There were no grander stories in the entire Games that Caitlin McClatchey's two golds in the 200m and 400m freestyle in times which would have landed Olympic gold and David Carry's three golds in the 400m freestyle, the 400m individual medley and 4x200m freestyle relay.

No more conclusive vindication either of the work of British swim guru Bill Sweetenham. It did not stop Mark Foster criticising him at every turn but then Foster ended up outside the medals in the 50m butterfly and freestyle at his last major championship while Sweetenham's more receptive swimmers gorged on success.

British swimmers collected 38 swimming medals in all at a Games where Australia, for whom swimming is a national sport, managed just 54 which remarkably did not include a single individual gold by the men outside the elite disabled athletes.

The statistics suggest Sweetenham is doing something right.

There was genuine success, too, in the boxing hall where England took five gold and Scotland one, most exciting being Frankie Gavin from Birmingham, a former sparring partner of Amir Khan and who promises the talent and the temperament to follow in Khan's footsteps.

The beauty of the boxing, swimming, cycling and rugby sevens, too, was that here were sports with genuine world-class competitors. There was no need to look over the shoulder at who was missing.

The same could not be said of the action at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was packed to the rafters on occasions for sport which was little more than ordinary.

It revealed the embarrassing state of British sprinting and elsewhere also had the feel of school sports day rather than elite competition.

Not the women's marathon where 38-year-old mum-of-two Kerryn McCann produced the most dramatic race of the Games to beat Kenya's Hellen Cherono Koskei, the result in doubt until the final surge down the home straight.

There was Asafa Powell's stroll in the 100m, clocking 10.03secs and then admitting he could have run 9.8.

There was Dean Macey's decathlon victory and Kelly Sotherton's gold in the heptathlon, but the fact is Sotherton did not win one of her seven disciplines and emerged to admit she would have no chance of a medal at the world or European championships in such form.

That she won so easily only underlined the poor quality of the opposition.

But then the Commonwealth Games do not purport to be the Olympics. They are the fun and friendly Games which allow swimmers from Sri Lanka to rub shoulders with divers from the island of Nuie and the might of competitors from England and Australia.

It would be encouraging to think such eclectic competition still had a place in a sporting world dominated by television and the commercial necessities of sponsors.

Was the £25million spent on opening and closing ceremonies worthwhile? Probably not, but they were spectacular.

It is difficult to see the Games flourishing much longer on the lavish scale of Melbourne, however, despite the one-eyed coverage of a home media who all but turned the event into the 'Australian Games'.

But if they are on their last legs at least Melbourne can say they gave them a run for their money.

Now it's over to Delhi who must attempt to harness the appeal of a wonderful city such as Melbourne with sporting action which merits 10 years of planning and another decade of debt.