The men's team - unchanged from their opening day win over Germany - got off to a flier, taking a lead of 23-7 into the second quarter, which they went on to extend even further with the help of substitutes Joe Bestwick and Kyle Marsh, who scored 13 points between them in the quarter to make it 44 – 19 by the half-time interval.

But another late lapse from the Britons allowed Switzerland to edge the final two quarters, but it made little difference after their blistering start as the whistle blew with a score of 75-53 in Britain's favour.

Bestwick said: "The performance at the beginning was good and professional, but we relaxed far too much in the second half.

"We made ourselves look poorer than we are, although the performance was a little disappointing, a win is a win."

Head Coach Haj Bhania also wants to see more from his team as the tournament progresses.

"We are pleased we won but we could have played better at times," he said.

"The Swiss played really well, they are a young up-and-coming team who we wish well in the rest of the tournament."

There was no such lapse for the women's team however, who showed no mercy as they annihilated Italy by 70-18 in their opening match.

Amy Conroy top-scored for Great Britain with 17 points in their massive win over Italy

The British team raced into a 13-0 lead within six minutes and it took Italy nine minutes to register their first score as they trailed 15-1 at the end of the first quarter.

Things went from bad to worse for the Italians as Britain extended their lead to 33-9 by the half-time interval, and their dominance allowed coaches Joe Jayaratne and Nigel Smith to hand Kirsty Wallace, Sophie Carrigill and 14-year-old Charlotte Moore their debuts.

But the changes made things no easier on a difficult game for Italy, as they conceded another 37 points in the second half, scoring just nine points in reply.

Smith said: "On the whole we played reasonably well, although we lost concentration for some small periods of the game.

"We are pleased that 11 out of the 12 players scored, but we would have like to get all 12 on the scoresheet which is a bit of a shame.

"All the girls got good minutes so it would have knocked some rustiness from some of the girls going forward to the next game."

GB player Maddie Thompson said: "It was a fantastic performance to open up with, it gives us a good start to work our way up from towards the Netherlands game.

"Everyone got good minutes and it was great for the newcomers, Kirsty, Sophie and Charlotte, to have a chance to show they are really part of the team."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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