DENMARK SQUEEZES BY SWEDEN FOR SIXTH EUROPEAN TEAM CROWN April 15,1996 (D.Shuttlenws) - Denmark today squeezed by tenacious archrival Sweden by a score of 3 matches to 2 to win the European mixed team championship for a record sixth time. The day began inauspiciously for the Danish side when the mixed doubles pair of Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen lost to a scratch Swedish combination of Par-Gunnar Jonsson, a men's doubles specialist, and Astrid Crabo, a mixed doubles ace whose usual partner is Jan-Eric Antonsson. Jonsson and Crabo started out well and took the first game 15-3 on Jonsson's power and Crabo's craftiness at net. Sogaard and Olsen managed find the holes in the Swedish combination in the second and won 15-11. The third game belonged to the Swedes 15-5 with the Danes unable to contend with the reinvigorated Jonsson and Crabo. Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, the All-England men's singles champion from Denmark, and Jens Olsson, the tall Swedish veteran singles player, then took the court for the tie's second match. Hoyer-Larsen, who took time off from training after his All-England win, was off-form and erratic. Olsson took advantage of the Dane's below-par play and defeated Hoyer-Larsen in straight games 15-9 15-13. Behind in the tie by 2 matches, the Danes had their backs against the proverbial wall, but women's singles ace, Camilla Martin, and the top Danish men's doubles tandem of Jon Holst-Christensen and Thomas Lund came through with wins and pulled Denmark even at 2 matches apiece. Martin, the Danish number one, toyed with Swedish substitute Christine Magnusson 11-3 11-0. Magnusson, the Swedish number 3, had to play Martin in the final tie due to a previous knee injury to Swedish number 1 Lim Xiao Qing and the absence of Swedish number 2 Catrine Bengtsson. Holst-Christensen and Lund turned back the Swedish pair of Par- Gunnar Jonsson and Peter Axelsson 15-5 15-10 in the men's doubles. With the tie all knotted up at two matches each, Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark and Maria Bengtsson and Margit Borg of Sweden played the deciding women's doubles match. Kirkegaard and Olsen, ranked among the world's top 5 women's duos, had no problem dealing with the Swedish pair. Always in control of the match, the Danes disposed of Bengtsson and Borg 15-6 15-6 to give Denmark their record sixth European team crown. COPYRIGHT 1996 by D.Shuttlenws@genie.com. PERMISSION GIVEN to redistribute electronically in whole or in part.