PAUL Drinkhall's hopes of a Commonwealth Games team table tennis medal are still alive despite the Loftus teenager experiencing mixed fortunes on his second day of competition.

Drinkhall saw off Farjad Saif in straight sets as England whitewashed Pakistan to make it four wins out of four yesterday morning.

But the 16-year-old then lost successive matches as his side lost 3-2 to Wales in their fifth pool match yesterday afternoon.

The result leaves England needing to beat Sri Lanka today to book their place in the last eight.

There is no second chance for boxer Danny Price though, after the Scarborough heavyweight suffered a controversial points defeat to Australian Brad Pitt.

Pitt, adopting the same brawling tactics that his movie-star namesake used when he played the lead role in both "Snatch" and "Fight Club", triumphed 16-12 despite struggling to make an impression for the majority of the first-round fight.

Harrogate's Jenny Duncalf is also out of the women's squash tournament after she lost to New Zealand's Shelley Kitchen.

South Shields swimmer Chris Cook should be in the medals this morning after smashing the Games record in the 100m breaststroke semi-finals.

The 26-year-old, who swims with the City of Newcastle club, clocked 1:00.94 to qualify fastest along with team-mates James Gibson and Darren Mew.

"I've come here to enjoy myself," said Cook. "Swimming in front of this crowd is amazing, I just love it and I think I'm definitely more suited to the 100m than the 200m."

In all, England won seven medals yesterday, with four in just two events in the pool.

Matthew Clay upstaged highly-fancied team-mate Liam Tancock as English swimmers finished first and second in the 50m backstroke, while Ross Davenport edged out Simon Burnett as the 200m freestyle ended in another one-two.

Mick Gault equalled the most Commonwealth Games medals won by an English shooter when he claimed the bronze with Nick Baxter in the men's 50m pistol pairs.

It was the 51-year-old's 12th Games medal and brought him level with Malcolm Cooper, who won 12 medals between 1974 and 1990.

England's women's gymnastics team overcame the absence of leading light Beth Tweddle to go one better than their male equivalents by claiming silver.

Shavahn Church, Imogen Cairns, Becky Downie and Hannah Clowes finished second behind Australia, with Canada taking bronze.

England's quest to land back-to-back badminton mixed team titles gathered further momentum as they hammered Trinidad & Tobago 5-0, while Robert Blair and Anthony Clark and Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg progressed in their respective doubles events.

England's male hockey team started their campaign with a 4-3 win over New Zealand, the team most likely to deprive them of a place in the last four. The country's women enjoyed a 5-0 romp over Canada, with captain Kate Walsh scoring a hat-trick of penalty corners.

England's netball team began with a 63-47 win over Malawi. Wales, on the other hand, were completely outclassed by Australia and lost 78-22.