Hockey: Hawes' hat-trick boosts Great Britain

Great Britain's men warmed up for today's first Test against New Zealand with a confident 6-0 win against a New Zealand Academy side in Auckland on Thursday, Ben Hawes scoring a hat-trick.

Although New Zealand have not beaten Great Britain since their 2-1 victory in the Munich Olympics in 1972, they have made great strides during recent years under the guidance of their coach, Kevin Towns, and his son and captain, Simon, who plays in the English National League for Reading.

Despite Britain's new coach, Jason Lee, recently claiming that the only results which matter are those in March's Olympic Qualifier in Madrid and in the Olympics themselves, it will be important for Britain to feature strongly in the best-of-five series. Scotland's Graham Moodie has taken over the captaincy from Jerome Goudie for this leg of the tour.

Domestically, form suggests that Cannock, with a home fixture today against lowly St Albans, should retain their lead at the top of the men's Premier Division. Second-placed Reading have to make the difficult trip to Guildford, while Surbiton in third may find the going tough away to the early pacesetters, Hampstead and Westminster.

Cannock and Surbiton should progress without too many problems into the fifth round of the EH Cup tomorrow, but Reading, with five players in New Zealand, are away to Canterbury and could find themselves contemplating an early exit.

In the women's Premier Division, where international absences appear to be having a greater effect than in the men's game, the leaders Chelmsford will be desperate to return to winning form after their three successive defeats when they travel to the defending champions Slough.