Hockey: Pakistan stunned by youthful England

England's young team, including three new caps, drew their opening game in the Golden Jubilee Tournament in Karachi yesterday 1-1 against Pakistan.

Only excellent goalkeeping by David Luckes kept England on terms as Pakistan opened at pace to put their inexperienced opponents under pressure.

Coming to grips with the hot, sticky conditions, England took the lead in the 30th minute to the amazement of the crowd of 10,000. Russell Garcia, starting the move down the right, exchanged passes with Mark Pearn before scoring a well-taken goal. Muhammad Shahbaz equalised on the stroke of half-time.

In an exciting second half, marred only by temporary suspensions to Andy Humphrey and Guy Fordham, England had more of the play but failed to score from seven penalty corners against Pakistan's two.

"Delighted," was the verdict of David Whittle, the England manager. "Everyone adjusted well." Today England play Germany who were without a game yesterday.

PAKISTAN: Mansoor Ahmed capt; Danish Kaleem, Tariq Imran; Irfan Mehmood, Muhammad Khalid, Waseem Ahmed; Muhammad Ali, Tahir Zaman, Kamran Ashraf, Muhammad Shahbaz, Babar Abdullah.

ENGLAND: D Luckes (East Grinstead); A Humphrey (Cannock); J Wallis (Teddington), B Garrard (Guildford), G Fordham (Hounslow); B Sharpe (Cannock), R Garcia (HDM, capt), J Pidcock ( Cannock); D Hall (Guildford), B Crutchley (Cannock), J Lee (Old Loughtonians). Substitutes used: B Waugh (Southgate), N Conway (Teddington), S Head (East Grinstead), M Pearn (Reading).

Umpires: D Prior (Aus) & C Siebrechet (Ger).

Surbiton eased their way out of the Premier Division relegation zone with a 4-0 win against a depleted Old Loughtonians. In the women's Premier, Ipswich moved four points clear at the top with a 3-1 win at Doncaster as Slough went down 2-0 at Clifton.