ENGLAND'S A and B teams were both victims of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals and final of the Dafabet World Cup of Pool in London.

The fourth seeds (Ko Pin Yi and Chang Yu Lung) defeated out-of-sorts holders and top seeds England A, who featured West Yorkshire's Karl Boyes (Bradford) and Darren Appleton (Pontefract), 9-6 in the last four at Bethnal Green's York Hall and 15th seeds England B (Mark Gray and Daryl Peach) 10-8 in the decider from 5-1 and 7-4 behind.

Boyes said of the semi-final: “We played terribly. We had some chances and they had a bit of luck but you can’t really say that is what cost us because it was a bad performance."

England A defeated Australia 7-5, 16th seeds Korea 7-0 and unseeded Romania 9-3 to reach the last four.

A total of 32 two-man teams started in the $250,000 event, which was televised live to over 40 countries, including Great Britain via Sky Sports, and Chinese Taipei, who had been semi-finalists on four occasions previously, won the title for the first time.