Andy Bowman and Watson Briggs had the honour of claiming the winning point as Scotland beat the Czech Republic 4-1 and set up a thrilling match with England at the European Team Championships in Liverpool.

With a win against Wales already in the locker, the Scots won the three of the first four rubbers to make it two wins out of two in Group 8. England, the No.2 seeds, cruised to a second whitewash victory with a 5-0 scoreline against the Welsh.

Scotland has never beaten England in badminton - Scottish coach Dan Travers hopes his team can claim a bit of history and head into the quarter-finals 

“The Czechs were always going to be dangerous so it’s good to win it reasonably comfortably,” said Travers. “Now we face the really big one. I think we’ve got a chance and all the pressure will be on them.” 

Briggs and Imogen Bankier, who is ranked No.7 in the world in mixed doubles with her English partner, Robert Blair, provided the Scots with a great start when they saved game points in the second and scored a 21-10 24-22 win over Petr Koukal and Martina Benesova.

“We’d have been n a bit of bother if we’d lost the second so it was important to make it in two,” suggested Bankier. “For some reason, Watson and I have a habit of taking easy first games and then being taken all the way in the second.”

Kieran Merrilees, who suffered the only Scottish reverse against Wales, again lost the men’s singles in three games to Jon Vondra. The 19-year-old, playing in his first major senior championship, took the opener 21-15 but then lost control and went down 13-21 16-21 in the next two.

The result added extra pressure to Susan Hughes’ singles match, but the experienced Commonwealth Games medallist was always too strong for Kristina Ludikova and she added another point with a comfortable 21-16 21-12 win.  

“She’s a pretty decent player so I thought it might be quite hard, and it was a little tougher going on with the score tied at one-all,” said the Glasgow 26-year-old. “Kieran played well, but it just wasn’t quite good enough.”

Briggs and Bowman faced a difficult match on paper against Vondra and Pavel Florian. They ran away with the first game 21-10 but had to save a game point in the second before claiming it 22-20.

In the dead women’s doubles rubber, Banier and Jillie Cooper claimed an easy 21-14 21016 win over Ludikova and Benesova.

Group 8

Scotland 4 Czech Republic 1

Men’s singles: Kieran Merrilees lost to Jan Vondra 21-15 13-21 16-21