England in seven heaven
Seven golds in five sports on penultimate day in Delhi sent England shooting past India on the medals table with one day to go.
 
England amassed 18 medals overall on the team’s third most successful day of the Games. With 138 in total, the athletes of Delhi 2010 have taken England’s Commonwealth Games all-time tally to 1,839 and past the 600 mark for golds, silvers and bronze.
 
Headlines:

Shooting ahead: Richard Brickell won the singles skeet title and Parag Patel claimed victory in the singles full bore open event to bring England’s gold medal haul to six.
 
Boxing clever: Tom Stalker and Simon Vallily won thumping golds for England, the latter with a clinical first round knock out.
 
Matthew makes it two: Aided ably by Adrian Grant, Nick Matthew matched the great Pete Nicol with a second squash gold at a single Games.

Melmore’s surprise: Natalie Melmore beat all-comers, bowling them over with some wonderful play to win a gold medal even she had never dared dream of.

Daley doubles up: Smiling Tom Daley added individual gold to the synchro title from yesterday – but he needed the dive of his life to do it.
 

England medals today:         Gold: 7; Silver: 5; Bronze: 5

England medal tally:             Gold: 37; Silver: 56; Bronze: 45.

Sport by sport round-up:

Badminton: Liz Cann won her first CG medal at her fourth Games, exacting revenge on Scotland’s Susan Egelstaff who beat her to bronze in Melbourne. This time the former Jersey player takes the podium step for England.
 
Boxing: Stalker and Vallily emerged from finals night with gold, while England’s other three finallists took silvers before a partisan home crowd.
 
Cycling: A breathless bronze for 45-year-old Julia Shaw at her first Games was followed by Alex Dowsett’s super silver in the sizzlingly hot time trials.
 
Diving: Daley pulled out all the stops to top his Australian rival and win his second gold of the Games after lying second for much of the 10m platform event.
 
Gymnastics: Lynne Hutchison and Francesca Fox were ninth and 11th in the individual all-around on a day when no Canadian made the podium for the first time ever.

Hockey: Some redemption for England’s women who slotted early against South Africa then held on bravely to win their third bronze of the summer.
 
Lawn Bowls: Melmore’s day was storybook stuff as she emerged from nowhere to beat the world and defending champion, and the world number one. Sam Tolchard lost bronze on a tie-break.
 
Shooting: Golds for Patel in the full bore and Brickell in the skeet closed a glorious Games for England’s shooters, but Mick Gault’s record hopes fell when he finished fifth in the pistols. He waves goodbye with two Delhi medals, a career 17 in all.
 
Squash: Matthew completed his golden double with Adrian Grant and put England on top of the squash medal table for the first time. Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro settled for silver.
 
Table Tennis: Weak with illness, Andrew Baggaley teamed up with Liam Pitchford to bag a men’s doubles bronze after losing a tense semi-final first thing this morning.