LOFTUS teenager Paul Drinkhall displayed remarkable maturity under pressure to win the deciding rubber on his full senior debut for England in their European Cup qualifying match against the Netherlands in Barrow in Furness last week.

The 14-year-old, the youngest player to represent the country in European competition, rescued the team of three from a tricky situation and enabled the side to qualify for the top category in the European Championships in Denmark next March.

The match stood tied at 2-2 when Drinkhall entered the fray as second string, needing to beat Holland's number two Barry Wijers. He had expected to play at three, was promoted for tactical reasons at the start, but lost his opening rubber.

Undaunted, he took the first set against Wijers by 11-4 and was clearly up for the challenge.

The second set was taken less easily and he lost the next, but the cool and confident Ormesby club player clinched the match in the fourth end.

The success was considered the best English victory for some years following the retirement of Matthew Syed.

Head coach Steen Hansen said: "What a great week for English table tennis."

Derbyshire's Alan Cooke, national senior champion, won the opening tie against Wijers in three ends.

But Drinkhall was beaten by Holland's number one Danny Heister, though he gained more points in each succeeding set.

Lancashire's Andrew Rushton, the national under-21 champion, gave England a 2-1 lead with a 3-1 win over Michiel Jonssen, but Cooke lost to Heister in five ends.

Then up stepped Drinkhall - and history was made. His father Andrew said: "He's getting better and better.

"He was amazing for the seniors and dealt with the enormous pressure very well indeed."

Drinkhall, who is currently in China for training, had represented Europe at under-15 level just a few days before in the annual ITTF inter-continental tournament in Madeira, along with a Russian and a French youngster.

He finished fifth in the singles, behind four Chinese players, and was runner-up in the doubles with Mikhail Paykov.

Wins over Kyle Davis of Australia, Steve Yogo of Congo and Portugal's Ivo Silva without losing a game put him into the play-offs.

But China's Jiang Haiyang, the top seed, stopped him 4-3 despite Drinkhall leading three times in the seven-end contest.

The matches to decide fifth to eighth positions saw 3-2 wins against India's Sarkar Soumyajit and Kim Gang Woog of Korea to clinch fifth spot.

Drinkhall and Paykov swept through their doubles group, beat one Chinese pair in the semi-finals, but eventually went down to Liu Miao and Xa Xin in the final.