Team England, who beat Spain 5-0 in the European men's team championships in Warsaw this morning, went crashing 3-2 tonight against Poland to wreck their hopes of reaching the Thomas Cup finals in Malaysia in May. The Poles led 3-0 before England won two rubbers through retirements.
And earlier in the day the women’s team lost to Russia 4-1 to end their Uber Cup campaign.
The men’s squad, who were second seeds and expected to reach the semi-finals, looked to be getting off to a good start when three-times English National champion Rajiv Ouseph took the first game off Przemyslaw Wacha - but the experienced Polish No. 1 roared back to take the match 15-21 21-15 21-14.
In the second rubber National runners-up Chris Adcock and Robert Blair let slip a winning position when they led by a game and 12-8 before falling to Michal Logosz and Adam Cwalina 15-21 22-20 21-19.
And it was game over when Carl Baxter went down 21-17 21-14 against Hubert Paczek in the second singles.
Chris Langridge and Anthony Clark won the first game of their doubles 21-14 before Robert Mateusiak and Wacha retired with the winning lead secured.
In the last match Rafal Hawal took the first game against Harry Wright 21-17 but retired when trailing 11-10 in the second to make the final score
3-2.
There was disappointment for the women's squad this afternoon as they lost all three singles as they went down 4-1 to Russia in their Uber Cup group decider.
Team England's women, as feared, found seeds Russia too strong.
English National champion Elizabeth Cann took Ella Diehl to three games before going down 21-10 17-21 21-11. Then Rachel Howard lost to Tatiana Bibik 21-18 21-10, leaving Kate Robertshaw in her second, England appearance, facing a must-win contest against doubles specialist Nina Vislova.
The Yorkshire girl put up a plucky display, winning the first game, before going down 21-23 21-17 21-12.
That meant England had lost before they could bring their two strong doubles pairs into play.
Heather Olver and Mariana Agathangelou stopped the slide by beating Ksenia Polikarpova and Anastasia Prokopenko 21-9 21-18 but Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White went down to Vislova and Valeria Sorokina 21-15 21-16 to end Team England's hopes of reaching the Uber Cup Finals in Kuala Lumpur in May.
Team England’s players now have two weeks to regroup before the 100th All England Open Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham although some of the squad will the Yonex German Open in Mulheim before the Yonex showpiece in Birmingham – the 27th year of world No 1 badminton brand’s sponsorship of the oldest and most prestigious event in the world game.