IRELAND lost out to Bulgaria, 4-1, in their final match of the European team badminton championships in Denmark yesterday. After arriving in Herning as the underdogs, the squad left well pleased to have secured their place in Europe for 1998. They finished fourth in the Group B competition and in 12th place overall out of a 16 strong line up.

In yesterday's meeting with Bulgaria, Ireland's only point came by default, with a three match lead and victory secured, the opposition opted to rest their injured men's doubles pairing, giving Bruce Topping and Michael O'Meara a walkover - and a clean sheet for the competition as a whole.

O'Meara and Elaine Kiely produced a fighting start for Ireland in the mixed doubles match against the world 43 ranked Stoyanov and Koleva. With the fiery Stoyanov punishing any loose play, an Irish run saw them narrowly lose the first game 13-15 and take the second 15-11. The Bulgarians went for broke in the third and took the verdict by 15-5.

Sonia McGinn lost a stormer with world number 36 Neli Nedjalkova. After going down in their opener 6-11, the Irish number one took a 10-3 lead in the second. But she lost five game points before levelling with an 11-9 margin. The third slipped away from her, 1-11.