Hockey: England fail to turn corner

BARRY DANCER, England's Australian coach, watched anxiously as Germany played New Zealand in the last pool match of the Six Nations Sultan Azlan Shah Cup here yesterday following his side's drab 1-1 draw with Malaysia.

With the Kiwis twice coming from behind to beat Germany 3-2, England must now play Malaysia again tomorrow to avoid the wooden spoon. Australia will play Germany in the final, with Korea lining up against New Zealand for the bronze medal game.

After Simon Mason had kept England in the game early on with three fine saves, Russell Garcia slotted home England's first penalty corner in the 13th minute. That he and others failed from 10 further penalty corners was England's undoing. Garcia also saw the Malaysian goalkeeper Paul Lopez save his penalty stroke in the 26th minute.

ENGLAND: S Mason (Reading); B Garrard (Teddington), J Halls (Old Loughtonians), B Waugh (Southgate, capt), J Wyatt (Reading); Kalbir Takher, J Pidcock (both Cannock), Manpreet Kochar (Reading); B Sharpe (Cannock), R Garcia (HDM, The Hague), J Lee (Old Loughtonians). Substitutes used: C Mayer (Cannock), A Humphrey (Cannock), M Pearn (Reading), N Thompson (Old Loughtonians).

MALAYSIA: P Lopez; Maninderjit Singh; Brian Jayhan Siva, Nor Azlan, Calvin Fernandez; S Kuhan, Aphthar Singh, Arui Selvaraj; Nor Saiful Zaini (capt), Chairil Anwar, M Kaliswaran. Substitutes used: Keevan Raj, Nishel Kumar, Lam Mun Fatt.

Umpires: D Gentles (Aus) and T O'Connor (NZ).