Racquet sports proved the richest source of medals for the home nations in the early action on the final day of the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms led the way with victory in the badminton mixed doubles, overcoming a sluggish start to beat second seeds Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten-Petersen of New Zealand.
The English pair trailed 4-1 in the first game and only led for the first time at 9-8, but eventually edged away to take the opener 21-17.
The Olympic silver medallists were quicker out of the blocks in the second game and a run of nine points out of 10 put them in a commanding position and on the way to victory.
England's Tracey Hallam also claimed a badminton gold on Sunday.
Hallam, who celebrated her 31st birthday on Friday, defeated Malaysia's Mew Choo Wong 21-12 21-15 in the women's singles final to complete her medal collection.
The left-hander from Burton-on-Trent, who won bronze in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and silver in Manchester four years ago, was the number one seed and had not dropped a game on her way to the final.
There was also English gold in squash as Peter Nicol and Lee Beachill retained their Commonwealth Games men's doubles title when they won a repeat of the 2002 final.
The pair, led by singles champion Nicol, lost the first game but hit back with a vengeance to beat Australians Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts 7-9 9-7 9-1 10-8.
There was also a silver medal for England with James Willstrop and Vicky Botwright finishing runners-up to Australian duo Joseph Kneipp and Natalie Grinham in the mixed doubles.
Willstrop, 22 from Pontefract, and Botwright, 28 from Manchester, were unable to build on a good start as they were beaten 6-9 9-6 9-5 9-6.
Botright then added a bronze medal to her collection in the women's doubles after helping Tania Bailey beat New Zealanders Louise Crome and Lara Petera 10-8 4-9 9-4 9-6 after a lengthy contest.
There were two medals for England in the Elite Athletes with a Disability table tennis.
Susan Gilroy won gold in the women's singles after beating Nigerian Faith Obiora in the final while in the same competition Catherine Mitton took the bronze after defeating another Nigerian, Vivian Ozurumba.
In the men's singles, Wales' Adam Robertson missed out on a medal after losing 4-3 to Nigeria's Segun Toriola in the bronze play-off match.
Wales had better luck in the cycling though with Nicole Cooke picking up bronze in the women's road race.
The 23-year-old, who was defending champion, came close to a silver but lost out in a sprint to the line with Australian Oenone Wood after Natalie Bates, also of Australia, took the gold medal.
England's Rachel Heal suffered a bad fall midway through the race and although she recovered, the Manchester bronze medallist did not have enough to get a podium place, finishing fifth.
There was more Australian success in the men's road race with Mathew Hayman taking gold.
England's Stephen Cummings, already a gold-medallist on the track, rode a brave race in the baking heat but could only close the gap on Hayman to 15 seconds and finished fourth.
Cooke's was the home nations' only medal picked up that was not won by England, who also added a bronze in the netball.
England edged out Jamaica 53-52 to clinch third place, but England's men's hockey team were unable to match that as they lost their bronze-medal match 2-0 to Malaysia.
Hosts Australia beat England's semi-final conquerors Pakistan 3-0 in the gold-medal match.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
