Hockey: Lister eases pain: Australians extend run

England. .1

Australia. 2

THE failure of England's women to clear their lines after two first-half penalty corner strikes resulted in defeat yesterday in the first of two Tests against Australia. In a valiant fightback, though, England pulled a goal back after the interval to set up an interesting second encounter at the same venue today, writes Bill Colwill from Lilleshall.

Australia, who arrived from Germany at the end of an unbeaten run of 11 internationals, struck early through Juliet Haslam.

Stubborn defensive play from Chris Cook and Kath Johnson kept the visitors at bay until Nikki Mott took advantage of English confusion at another penalty corner.

A second-half reshuffle, with Johnson moving to the left side of the defence and Cook moving into the midfield, put new life into England, who then came up with a rare goal from Sandie Lister, their captain.

ENGLAND: C Reid (Hightown); J Atkins (Bradford Swithenbank), L Youngs (Ipswich), K Johnson (Balsam Leicester), C Cook (Hightown), S Lister (Ipswich, capt), M Davies (First Personnel Sutton Coldfield), T Miller (Clifton), S Wright (Slough), J Sixsmith (First Personnel Sutton Coldfield), J Smith (Chelmsford). Substitutes used: S Gibson (Trojans), T Cullen (Hightown), H Whalley (First Personnel Sutton Coldfield).

AUSTRALIA: C Maitland; T Ghisalberti, J Morris, A Peek, J Haslam, S Carbon, J Pereira, R Farrell, N Mott, R Hawkes (capt), K Starre. Substitutes used: J Sowry, A Annan, N Peris, C Mitchell-Taverner, L Power.

Umpires: M Woolley (Australia), I Muldowney (England).