Kazakhstan give England a fright

Our Correspondent

Strong contenders England were firmly placed atop Pool A in the women's World Cup hockey qualifier after beating Kazakhstan by a solitary goal at Amiens, France, on Thursday.

The victory, though hard-earned, was their third from as many matches in the seven-team pool.

For Kazakhstan, it was their second defeat from three matches.

Kazakhstan packed their defence and looked set to take a point from the days' concluding fixture as they held the English goalless till the 56th minute. But a change in England's drill from their 10th penalty-corner saw Olympian forward Denise Marston-Smith score and dash their hopes.

England could have added another goal soon after but Jane Smith's deflection was just off target.

In the opening match of the day, Ireland proved too good for lowly Uruguay, winning 6-0.

It was Ireland's second victory, following their 1-0 win over India in their opening match.

As the scorline indicates, Ireland were streets ahead of their South American rivals, and had they converted even half of the many chances that came their way they could have won by a dozen goals. They had 13 penalty-corners but were able to score from just three. Jenny Burke got all of them and then another goal to her name from a penalty-stroke to become the first player in the tournament to register a hat-trick.

Ireland's other two goals were scored by Lynsey McVicker, who was responsible for opening the floodgates from a solo effort.

Ukraine also kept themselves in the running for a semi-final berth by posting their second victory in three matches.

In the second match of the day's programme, they socred a hard-fought 4-3 victory over France, after leading 4-1 at half-time.

France suffered their second defeat from as many matches.

All of Ukranie's goals came in the first 25 minutes through Fyeridye Bilyalova (second minute), Tetyana Kobzenko (fifth), Svitlana Kolomiyets (20th) and Zhanna Savenko (24th).

But after France's skipper Muriel Lazennec scored in the 27th minute to reduce the margin, Ukraine had their hands full and were lucky to come away with a victory.

Caroline Delloye made it 2-4 for France in the 40th before Lazennec could get another goal to her name in the 57th minute.

Earlier reports
Day 1: Indian eves start on winning note
Day 2: Japan score big win
Day 3: Indian women lose to Ireland