By Scott Dougal, PA International

Rumours that England's cyclists are voting to have Australia expelled from the Commonwealth proved unfounded but the home riders were forced to swallow another bitter pill.

Englishmen lost out to Australians in a gold medal final for the third successive night as Jason Queally, Jamie Staff and Andy Slater were out-done by a green and gold blur in the team sprint.

The disappointment followed that of the team pursuiters by a world-record breaking Australian performance, and the beating of Bradley Wiggins by Brad McGee in the individual pursuit 24 hours earlier.

Queally and Co set the fastest time in qualifying but they could find nothing to match the power and control demonstrated by Ryan Bayley, Sean Eadie and Jobie Dajke - who swept the medal placings in the individual sprint earlier in the week.

It meant that eight out of the 11 gold track medals on offer are heading Down Under.

For Bayley, who won two them, the experience was made all the sweeter by the presence of Staff, a former BMX world champion, on the English side.

"I did motocross for a couple of years but then it became too expensive," he said.

"I then switched to BMX and my idol was Jamie Staff so it was good to come down here and beat him."

Scotland's men - Chris Hoy, Craig McLean and Ross Edgar - had to settle for bronze despite setting a time of 44.994secs, a second quicker than they managed in qualifying, which might have been good enough on other occasions.

But that reckoned without the sky-high standards set first by the Australians, then by England.

The Aussies had looked less than perfect in qualifying but impressed as they ensured their place in the gold/silver final with a time of 44.703.

They were joined by the English trio, who were fastest qualifiers but were slower in the semi-finals - trailing Australia by .003 of a second.

That gap was stretched to .266 in the final - the blink of an eye, but enough to turn gold to silver.

It meant double misery for Olympic gold medallist Queally, who also had to settle for silver in the 1km time-trial won by Hoy.

He said: "We are disappointed obviously. We were very fortunate to beat the Scots and there was a lot of pressure there.

"That comes off when you know you've got at least a silver but we're disappointed not to get a gold."

The British team which won silver at the Sydney Olympics was split in two for these Games, Hoy and MacLean riding for Scotland with Queally competing for England.

And, following the conversion of Staff - who took the lap of honour on a BMX - to track this year, Queally did allow himself a reason to be cheerful.

He said: "I am very optimistic about the future. We have got real strength in depth and just having Jamie on board now gives us such high hopes."

However, the last word went to Eadie, a larger than life character with the looks of Bluto and Bugs Bunny's sense of mischief.

At the end of the press conference, the last of the week at the velodrome, the Australian piped up.

"Actually, I have a question," he said.

"Can anyone tell me the name of a good pub near the (Athletes') Village, one that's open until about 4am?"