Hockey: Boost before Bonn: England come in from the cold

BY BEATING Switzerland 7-5 and Lithuania 4-1 on the last day, England won the European Indoor Cup qualifying tournament here yesterday but have considerable work to do if they are to win a medal in next month's finals in Bonn.

After a period when the indoor game has lacked direction, England's first tournament win, indoors or outdoors, for four years could perform wonders for sagging morale.

An otherwise patchy performance against Switzerland saw England twice score two goals in a minute, the first pair from Bob Crutchley, the second from Peter Nail. Phil McGuire, John Shaw and Don Williams completed the scoring.

As in all the earlier games it was only a series of daring and timely saves from the goalkeeper David Luckes, aided by the commanding presence of Jason Laslett, that kept England in it, unnerved as they were by some dubious decisions from a Lithuanian umpire appeared to be out of his depth.

They went into their last game against Lithuania in the knowledge that they had already achieved their main objective - qualification - and that overall victory was surely not far away against a side who had conceded 41 goals in their previous four games.

McGuire scored in the very first minute only for England to find themselves pegged back as the Lithuanians took advantage of indisciplined play.

A major upset looked possible

before Crutchley struck twice and Andy Humphrey scored his first international goal. Crutchley finished joint top goal-scorer with France's Franck Chirez.

In the final match, France twice came from behind to beat Switzerland 7-6 to take second place. The Czech Republic are the other

qualifiers.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 31