Birmingham University ladies returned to winning ways in Division One of the Birmingham League after a surprising defeat to KRS to consolidate top position with a 5-1 victory over SGN.

Worcestershire County stars Kelly Mead and Elana Johnson, who were undefeated, were largely responsible for the mixed side's opening 9-0 whitewash over Broadway II in Division One.

Ben Witham with Mead, Richard Wrigley with Johnson and John Forde with Jenna Tye remained undefeated.

KRS hopes of retaining the men's Division One title have ended after they lost their second consecutive match to Bidgley Power 6-3 despite an undefeated display by Andrew Howard and Tim Lawrence.

Hotshots mixed side were 5-4 winners over Solihull & Shirley with Duncan Eades and Ellen Porter providing the undefeated performance. John Hudson and Katie Johnson won two games for the losers.

In mixed Division Two, Holy Trinity's Richard Wright and Lynn Burton were the top pair with a perfect display in the 7-2 win over Lighthall.

Matt Jeans and Paul Cope, and Matt Gregory with Ben Loach, enjoyed an undefeated performance in their 7-2 win over KRS II in men's Division Two.

Warwickshire's third team had their first defeat in three, to Cambridgeshire II 8-7, reversing a 14-1 thrashing in October.

With the absence of six of the regular men, they lost both men's singles and all four of the doubles but the ladies proved to be the reliable performers.

Nuneaton's Bethany Wong and Kate Strong defeated Liz Wig and Sharon Chandler 11-2, 11-2 and 11-4, 11-0, respectively.

Coventry ' s Sharon McGuire and Rose Winship, along with Sue Lee and Wong, levelled the match at 6-6 with an undefeated ladies doubles display but won only one of the mixed doubles through Alistair Smith and the four-game winner, Wong.

The over-55 Warwickshire veterans had a 7-5 win over Nottinghamshire in their opening fixture of the season.

Alison Cookson and Grace Gallagher had three wins each, winning both ladies doubles and one mixed doubles each. n The win by England No 1 Tracey Hallam in the women's singles final of the Chinese-Taipei Open will strengthen her status among the world's top ten.

The 30-year-old left-hander from Burton-on-Trent, the top seed, beat Korean third seed Seo Yoon Hee 11-9, 11-7.

The success by Hallam, a world championship quarterfinalist and Commonwealth silver medallist, will set her up for the Yonex All England Championships at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena in mid-January and her bid to recapture the English National title at Manchester Velodrome at the start of February.

Hallam's success follows the mixed doubles triumph for Olympic silver and European gold medallists Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms in last week's China Open. n England will face European champions Denmark in Preston in their final warm-up contest before heading to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next year.

England will face the Danes in a one-off international on Thursday March 2, with £1,000 up for grabs for the winners of each of the five events and a further £1,000 for the winning team.

England will oppose their former performance director Finn Traerup Hansen, who holds down a similar position with the Danes.