England join the elite

England Have qualified for the elite Group A world championship to be held in Argentina in September, having reached the semi-finals of the Group B competition being held at Buckmore Park in Chatham, Kent.

England Have qualified for the elite Group A world championship to be held in Argentina in September, having reached the semi-finals of the Group B competition being held at Buckmore Park in Chatham, Kent.

Along with Uruguay, the Netherlands and Canada, the hosts gained promotion to the top echelon after a comfortable 7-0 win over South Africa in the quarter-finals on Thursday night.

England would have fancied their chances of reaching the final; their opponents last night in the last four were Uruguay, the side they beat earlier in the week, also by 7-0.

The winners of that semi-final will meet either Canada or the Netherlands in the final today.

The third and fourth place play-off will be decided by the winners of the matches between New Zealand and South Africa and Belgium and Colombia.

Australia were too strong for South Korea yesterday, running out 11-0 winners, while Austria were made to scrap before overcoming the challenge of Macau, 9-4.

Coached by Portugal's Juan Carlos Amaral, England have one professional in their ranks, Andrew Ashurst, who plays for the Spanish club Piera and who has been in impressive form this week.