Hockey: England falter on way to win

Bill Colwill

Egypt 3 England 6

England's new hockey coach, the Australian Barry Dancer, was unhappy with his side's performance in Cairo yesterday, despite their 6-3 victory to lead the five-Test series 3-0. Dancer said: "It was a scrappy performance in which we lost midfield control but won the game."

After Russell Garcia had launched a good start with a penalty stroke conversion in the fourth minute, England lost their way, allowing Belal Ibrahim to score twice and put Egypt 2-1 ahead by the 11th minute.

As the teams struggled to get midfield control, a move between Garcia and Justin Pidcock ended with Ben Sharpe putting England level in the 18th minute. Garcia and Calum Giles assured a 4-2 interval lead.

Sharpe's return from a temporary suspension in the 55th minute signalled the first of two further goals from Giles inside four minutes. With just two minutes remaining, Ibrahim completed his hat-trick.

ENGLAND: S Mason (Reading); A Humphrey (Cannock), J Wyatt (Reading), J Halls (HDM, The Hague), B Barnes (East Grinstead); D Woods (Southgate), J Pidcock (Cannock), B Sharpe (Cannock); C Mayer (Cannock), R Garcia (HDM, capt); B Crutchley (Cannock). Substitutes used: C Giles (KZ, The Hague), Manpreet Kochar (Reading), B Waugh (Southgate), D Hall (Guildford).

EGYPT: Haitem Gamal; Hossam Hassan; Sayd Moussa, Adnan El Sayed, Amro Fatah; Abd El Khalok (capt), Yasser Abd El Mon, Mohamed Sayed; Belal Ibrahim, Mohamed Samir, Musa Sayed. Substitutes used: Mahmoud Samir, Ahmed Zenhom, Emad Amene.

Umpires: Tarek Moustafa (Eg) & A Hoyes (Eng).