Two gruelling weeks came to an end for Jenny Duncalf on the show court of the Siri Fort Sports Complex today as she added a second silver to her Commonwealth Games tally.

Duncalf, playing with partner Laura Massaro in the final of the women’s doubles, was unable to conjure a gold from the court as the pair went down 11-9, 11-10 to Kiwi duo Jaclyn Hawkes and Joelle King.

Remarkably, Duncalf and Massaro had never played together before this tournament but were paired when Duncalf’s regular doubles partner, Alison Waters, injured her Achilles and had to withdraw from the singles bronze medal match.

After losing a hard fought first game 11-9, the English women took a commanding lead in the second and at 10-6 up looked set to level the match.

But the New Zealanders fought back, winning an impressive five points in a row to secure the gold in straight games. 

World number three Duncalf said: “Doubles can be a bit of a lottery. We only play once every four years and it’s often down to a lucky bounce and decisions. It’s a thin line between winning and losing but they were deserving winners today.

“To come away with two silvers is good and I’m happy to be on the podium twice. My goal was three medals but I’ve got to be happy with two silvers.” 

Twenty- six-year-old Massaro said it was “horrible” to lose their final match of the tournament “as you know what you could’ve had”, but said she thought they had played well together. 

“I wasn’t expecting to play doubles with Jenny,” she said, “We were thrown together a bit due to Ali’s injury, so I thought we played really well.”

Nick Matthew and Adrian Grant will look to go one better in the men’s doubles final at 17:30 this afternoon as they take on Australians Stewart Boswell and David Palmer.