After two days hard fishing on Italy's Canale Circondariale Bando Vallelepri England will return home empty handed from the World Champs Senior competition.
A valiant display on the first day left the boys with plenty to do, especially in the face of a dominant Italian side. However hopes were high that they could push for silver or bronze and that Stuart Conroy, after scoring a second in section, might be in with a chance for an individual medal.
Sadly it wasn't to be, with the Italians continuing a momentous performance which saw them take team gold and two of the top three individual places.
England's anglers failed to score high enough on the second and final day, although even a win in section for each man would not have been enough to seal gold either for the team or individually unless Italy made some serious mistakes following their superb score on day one.
Highest ranked from the the five man team was Stuart Conroy who came tenth overall with a second and third in section, closely followed by Alan Scotthorne in eleventh with the same score.
Des Shipp scored 9 points and took 25th spot, with Will Raison in 32nd and Steve Gardener, who replaced Sean Ashby on day two, coming 168th.
Of the other home nations Wales' Nigel Evans finished highest in 33rd. And although hopes were high for Scotland's Jamie Mason to take a medal after a section win on the first day, a 15th on the second saw the Scotsman finish in 56th.
Individual final results top five
1st Andrea Fini, Italy, 2 points 32.620kg
2nd Peter Milkovics, Hungary, 2 points, 31.070kg
3rd Ferruccio Gabba, Italy, 2 points, 28.200kg
4th Guido Nullens, Belgium, 3 points, 17.905kg
5th Umberto Ballabeni, Italy, 3 points, 17.940kg
England individual results
10th Stuart Conroy, 5 points, 29.400kg, second and third in section
11th Alan Scotthorne, 5 points, 18.520kg, third and second in section
25th Des Shipp, 9 points, 19.570kg, fourth and fifth in section
32nd Will Raison, 10 points, 14.180kg, fifth and fifth in section
168th Steve Gardener (replacing Sean Ashby on day two) 22 points, fourth in section (day two), 8.720kg
