England remain pointless after the third round of matches in the BDO Champions Challenge in Boom, Belgium but they produced by far their best performance of the tournament and outplayed the tournament leaders for long periods in the second half. “I have a feeling we just didn’t get the breaks today” said Jason Lee, the coach. He has a point. New Zealand had three penalty corners, two of which Hayden Shaw fired in to the roof of the net and the other one was intercepted by Rob Moore’s head on the line, Dean Couzins scoring from the resulting penalty stroke. James Fair, in the England goal, had only one notable save to make denying Phillip Burrow’s reverse stick shot. England’s goal came from the first of their two penalty corners with Moore putting away the second rebound after Kyle Pontifex had saved Richard Mantell’s initial strike and Richard Alexander’s follow up. England’s second corner which came six minutes from the end was less productive. Simon Mantell raised his hit straight into Pontifex. England play Japan, who have one win from three matches, on Thursday.
Third Day’s Results:
Japan 0 Argentina 2
England 1 New Zealand 3
Belgium 1 India 4
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a rest day.
