Hockey: Cullen inspires England

England 10 Ukraine 1

TINA CULLEN scored four times, for the second time in her international career, as England yesterday crushed Ukraine 10-1 in their fourth game in the European Women's Nations Cup here yesterday. With Germany beating Spain 5-0 to top Pool B, England are virtually assured of the other semi- final place. They will need to beat the Germans in their last pool game tomortow to avoid the Dutch, who are favourites for the title, in the semi-finals on Friday.

Yesterday's game for England was potentially their trickiest but with an excellent all-round performance they made it a doddle. Jane Smith at a penalty corner sent England on their way in the sixth minute. Cullen got the first of her goals in the 13th minute with Jane Sixsmith getting in on the act in the 23rd.

Although the Ukrainians took advantage of their fourth penalty corner to score on the half-hour and might have scored a second before the interval, they were never in the game in the second half. Sixsmith scored a second, Mandy Nicholson, Anna Bennett and Lucilla Wright each collected goals as England rammed home their supremacy, taking their goal tally in the four games to 24 with just two against.

Earlier the Irish obtained their first points with a 4-0 win against the Czech Republic with Lynsey McVicker scoring twice.

ENGLAND: C Reid (Hightown); M Nicholson (Slough), M Clewlow (Canterbury), F Greenham ( Slough), K Walsh (Hightown); J Smith (Slough), S Chandler (Slough), K Brown (capt; (Slough); J Sixsmith (Sutton Coldfield), L Wright (Olton), T Cullen (Hightown). Substitutes used: K Bowden (Fyffes Leicester), A Bennett (Slough), J Empson (Canterbury), H Richardson (Fyffes Leicester).

Ukraine: V Kotlyarenko; S Sumenna; M Litvinchuk, O Fritche, S Kalinina; L Guda, V Kramarenko, N Vynohradova; Z Savenko, T Salenko, T Kobzenko (capt). Substitutes used: A Panchenko, E Djemilova, V Syeda, A Valasova.

Umpires: J Buchanan (South Africa) and A Van Dyk (Canada).

WOMEN'S EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP (Cologne) Pool B: Ireland 4 Czech Republic 0; England 10 Ukraine 1; Germany 5 Spain 0. Standings after four games: 1 Germany 12pts; 2 England 10; 3 Spain 7; 4 Ireland 3; 5 Ukraine 3; 6 Czech Republic 0.