Hockey: Smith chips in

Great Britain. . .2

Spain. . . . . . .0

GREAT BRITAIN earned their first points of the NCM Women's Champions Trophy here yesterday when they defeated Spain, the Olympic Champions, 2-0 with goals from two of their young hopefuls for the next Olympics, Jane Smith and Sally Gibson, writes Bill Colwill from Amsterdam.

After an opening five minutes in which Britain did everything but score, the first half developed into a rather negative midfield contest, with Britain's best chance falling to Sam Wright after Smith had made good progress down the right.

However, Spain's Sonia de Ignacio was quick to spot the danger and robbed Wright.

After the interval, Britain reshuffled their central players with Lynda Watkin taking over at sweeper and Kath Johnson moving into central midfield.

The changes paid off as Britain scored their opening goal in the 50th minute when a falling Smith, who set up the attack, chipped her shot over the Spanish goalkeeper.

After further British pressure and several near misses, Gibson sealed victory with a second goal six minutes from the end.

GREAT BRITAIN: T Robb (Glasgow Western); J Atkins (Bradford, capt); S Fraser (Glasgow Western), K Johnson (Leicester), C Cook (Hightown); M Davies (Sutton Coldfield), L Watkin (Sutton Coldfield), S Wright (Slough); P Robertson (Edinburgh), J Smith (Chelmsford), S MacDonald (Glasgow Western). Substitutes used: L Youngs (Ipswich) and S Gibson (Trojans).

SPAIN: M Marinez de Murguia; S Barrio; C Martin, C Barea, C Gonzalez; B Larzabal, V Ramirez (capt), A Rodriguez; S de Ignacio, I Imbers, E Goicoechea. Substitutes used: R Teva, E Yarza and F Melero.

Umpires: P Buckley (Aus) and Youfang Hu (Ch).