England Clinch European Double In the longest men's final on record, England retained the European Team Championships title in Nottingham after beating France by the narrowest of margins. Earlier in the day, England defeated Netherlands to secure the women's title for the 27th year in succession, but for the first time since 1988 dropped a match in the final. World Junior Champion James Willstrop, the 19-year-old from Yorkshire making his national debut, put England's men ahead with a 9-2 3-9 9-7 9-3 win over experienced Frenchman Jean-Michel Arcucci. Their 97-minute battle was overshadowed by the clash between Nottingham hero Simon Parke and his club team-mate Renan Lavigne, the French No3. It took two hours and two minutes to separate the pair - with Parke, despite having two match balls in the fourth game, eventually losing 3-9 9-2 8-10 10-9 9-3 as France levelled the tie. Playing in his first European final for England, world No1 Peter Nicol restored order for the hosts with a 9-0 5-9 10-8 9-0 win in 84 minutes over world No6 Thierry Lincou. The England team management now knew that only a single game was needed by squad No2 Lee Beachill in the final match of the tie. His opponent Gregory Gaultier, however, had clearly not read the script - and duly claimed the opening game for France 9-3. Further calculations revealed that Beachill simply needed a total of nine points from the match to ensure victory - and the packed gallery counted down the further six points required. The Yorkshireman, however, took the second game - and calculators were duly discarded as England celebrated their historic win after more than seven hours of play! In the women's final, England were tested for the first time in the event. After third string Rebecca Macree put the hosts ahead against surprise opponents Netherlands, former world champion Cassie Jackman crashed to a 9-4 3-9 9-5 10-9 defeat by Dutch champion Vanessa Atkinson - a repeat of the Dutch world number six's win in last month's final of the Irish Open. Despite never having played a deciding rubber for England before, world No3 Linda Charman cruised to a 9-4 9-2 9-1 win over second string Annelize Naude to ensure that the title stayed in England. Wales won the men's play-off for third place in repeat of last year's tie with Netherlands at the same stage - and 2002 runners-up Scotland secured a third place finish in the women's event. Ireland celebrated their best European finish for ten years, taking sixth place in both the men's and women's events from seeded positions of nine - and Sweden's tenth-seeded men claimed fifth place with a squad featuring no players on the PSA Tour. The rise of squash in Spain was powerfully demonstrated by Spanish victories in the men's play-off for 7th place and the women's play-off for 9th position - in both cases ahead of seedings. The European Squash Federation's 'Fair Play Awards', selected by the event referees for the man and woman who demonstrate exemplary fair play on court, were presented to Oriol Salvia (Spain) and Charlie de Rycke (Belgium). RESULTS European Team Championships, Nottingham, England Men's final: [1]ENGLAND 2 [2]FRANCE 2 (England win 9-6 on games countback) (Peter Nicol bt Thierry Lincou 9-0, 5-9, 10-8, 9-0 (84m); Lee Beachill lost to Gregory Gaultier 3-9, 9-5, ret (52m); Simon Parke lost to Renan Lavigne 9-3, 2-9, 10-8, 9-10, 3-9 (122m); James Willstrop bt Jean-Michel Arcucci 9-2, 3-9, 9-7, 9-3 (97m)) Women's final: [1]ENGLAND 2 [6]NETHERLANDS 1 (Cassie Jackman lost to Vanessa Atkinson 4-9, 9-3, 5-9, 9-10 (58m); Linda Charman bt Annelize Naude 9-4, 9-2, 9-1 (24m); Rebecca Macree bt Karen Kronemeyer 9-4, 10-8, 9-2 (32m)) Men's 3rd place play-off: [3]WALES 3 [4]NETHERLANDS 1 (Alex Gough bt Tommy Berden 9-2, 2-9, 9-6, 9-2; David Evans bt Lucas Buit 9-7, 9-1, 10-8; Gavin Jones bt Laurens Jan Anema 4-9, 9-6, 9-5, 9-2; Greg Tippings lost to Dylan Bennett 9-10, 10-9, 9-0, 2-9, 1-9) Men's 5th place play-off: [10]SWEDEN 3 [9]IRELAND 1 (Daniel Forslund bt Liam Kenny 4-9, 4-9, 9-4, 9-4, 9-6; Christian Drakenberg bt Derek Ryan 9-7, 6-9, 9-3, 6-9, 9-3; Badr Abdel Aziz bt John Rooney 4-9, 10-9, 9-2, 9-2; Henrik Lofvenborg lost to Steve Richardson 5-9, 1-9, 1-9) Men's 7th place play-off: [11]SPAIN 3 [12]DENMARK 1 (Borja Golan bt Mads Korsbjerg 9-6, 9-4 (best of three); Oriol Salvia bt Danny Knudsen 9-0, 9-2, 9-2; Iago Cornes lost to Michael Hansen 4-9, 5-9, 0-9; Victor Montserrat bt Morten Sorenson 9-3, 9-1, 9-4) Men's 9th place play-off: [5]SCOTLAND 3 [8]SWITZERLAND 1 (John White bt Lars Harms 9-6, 10-9, 9-7; Martin Heath bt Andre Holderegger 9-3, 9-4, 9-2; Peter O'Hara lost to Marco Eggenberger 2-9, 2-9, ret; Stuart Crawford bt Kevin Villiger 9-4, 9-2, 9-5) Men's 11th place play-off: [7]FINLAND 2 [6]GERMANY 2 (Finland win 76-74 on points countback)(Olli Tuominen bt Simon Frenz 10-9, 9-0, 9-2; Mika Monto bt Stefan Leifels 9-4, 9-2, 9-2; Tatu Murronmaa lost to Edgar Schneider 1-9, 3-9, 2-9; Hameed Ahmed lost to Christian Radeke 8-10, 1-9, 6-9) Men's 13th place play-off: [13]BELGIUM 3 [15]AUSTRIA 0 (Olivier van Heghe bt David Huck 10-8, 9-7, 9-1; Wim van Asten bt Michael Scharrer 6-9, 9-5, 7-9, 9-0, 9-6; Marc Christie bt Jakob Dimberger 10-9, 9-6, 9-3; Peter Pastijn v Clemens Wallishauser 'dead rubber' not played) Men's 15th place play-off: [16]HUNGARY 3 [14]CZECH REPUBLIC 1 (Andras Torok bt Jan Koukal 9-0, ret; Mark Krajcsak bt Milos Pokorny 9-6, 9-4, 9-5; Sandar Fulop bt Martin Stepan 9-4, 9-0, 9-0; Marton Szaboky lost to Jan Zemlicka 2-9, 9-4, 5-9, 3-9) Men's 17th place play-off: ISRAEL 2 GREECE 2 (Israel win 6-5 on games countback)(Ilan Oren lost to Fabian Kalaitzis 4-9, 6-9 (best of three); Dovic Druckman lost to Paul Gregory 4-9, 5-9, 4-9; Ron Levy bt Petros Tzamaloukas 9-1, 9-4, 9-1; Yariv Bloomberg bt K Kargiotis 9-1, 9-0, 9-0) Men's 19th - 21st place play-offs: ISLE OF MAN 4 [18]RUSSIA 0 (David Norman bt Alexei Severinov 9-2, 9-1, 9-1; Richard Corlett bt Serguei Kostrykine 9-3, 9-3, 9-1; Kevin Watterson bt Maxim Shokin 9-1, 9-0, 9-2; Austin Lowe bt Andrey Bratter 9-6, 9-6, 9-0) [17]NORWAY 3 [18]RUSSIA 1 (Richard Larsson bt Alexei Severinov 9-6, 9-5, 9-3; Tom Hansen lost to Serguei Kostrykine 1-9, 0-9, 2-9; Rashid Younis bt Maxim Shokin 9-3, 9-1, 9-5; Hans Torgersen bt Andrey Blatter 9-0, 9-0, 9-2) Final placings: 19 Norway, 20 Isle of Man, 21 Russia Women's 3rd place play-off: [2]SCOTLAND 3 [4]DENMARK 0 (Pamela Nimmo bt Ellen Petersen 10-9, 9-6, 9-7; Wendy Maitland bt Line Hansen 9-1, 9-6 (best of three); Senga Macfie bt Mette Jorgensen 9-7, 10-8, 9-1) Women's 5th place play-off: [7]FRANCE 2 [9]IRELAND 1 (Isabelle Stoehr bt Madeline Perry 9-2, 5-9, 10-8, 9-5; Corinne Castets bt Aisling Blake 9-7, 9-1, 7-9, 9-4; Karine Fouchet lost to Anna McGeever 3-9, 2-9, 6-9) Women's 7th place play-off: [5]BELGIUM 2 [3]GERMANY 1 (Katline Cauwels bt Simone Korell 9-2, 9-0, 9-1; Michou Cauwels lost to Karin Beriere 3-9, 0-9, 0-9; Charlie de Rycke bt Jessica Reese 10-8, 9-0, 9-2) Women's 9th place play-off: [11]SPAIN 2 [10]SWITZERLAND 1 (Olga Puigdemont lost to Manuela Zehnder 3-9, 3-9 (best of three); Elisabet Sado bt Olivia Hauser 9-4, 9-3 9-7; Margaux Moros bt Gabi Hegi 9-4, 9-1, 4-9, 9-0) Women's 11th place play-off: [12]AUSTRIA 2 [8]WALES 1 (Ines Gradnitzer lost to Hayley James 8-10, 1-9 (best of three); Birgit Coufal bt Stacey Preece 9-5, 2-9, 9-4, 7-9, 9-5; Sissi Colli bt Julia Wells 9-2, 9-3, 9-3) Women's 13th place play-off: [15]FINLAND 2 [13]SLOVAKIA 1 (Kia Paasivirta lost to Henrieta Loksova 9-4, 9-10, 5-9 (best of three); Nana Niskanen bt Aneta Paprnakova 9-1, 9-1, 9-1; Elina Kononen bt Sona Moravkova 9-1, 9-5, 9-1) Women's 15th place play-off: [16]ISRAEL 3 [14]ITALY 0 (Jackie Goldberg bt Manuela Manetta 1-9, 9-0, 3-9, 9-6, ret.; Nadine Mizrahi bt Katiuscia Grossi 9-7, 9-3, 9-3; Michal Keidar bt Evelin Panizzi 9-1, 9-4, 9-1)