Hockey: England warm up against President's X1

Hockey

England, who arrived in Cairo in the early hours of yesterday, play the President's XI tomorrow in a warm-up game before they start their series of four Tests against Egypt on Monday.

Meanwhile, at Milton Keynes, England's women play South Korea in the second Test with two changes to the squad which won on Thursday. Mandy Davies and Lucy Youngs play in place of Sarah Blanks and Lucy Culliford.

With the Premier League sides not in action because of the international trip, the men's domestic scene centres on the meeting of the leaders in Division One, Surbiton, against runners-up Havant at Surbiton this afternoon in the League and in the third round of the Cup in Hampshire tomorrow.

With both teams on maximum points, it is unfortunate that Surbiton will be without South African Gregg Nichol, their leading goal-scorer who has returned home for a six-Test series against Poland.

Surbiton's squad is boosted by the return of forwards Mark Owen (Barbados) and Karl Stagno (Gibraltar). Havant's young side of mostly home-grown players should be unchanged.

Chelmsford will be missing their two South Africans, Mike Cullen and Justin King, on international duty which will make their task much harder away to Lewes and the Cup game in Bristol against Robinsons. They will benefit from the return of Australian Pat Oxley, who missed the start of the season.

- Bill Colwill