LUNDBERG SAVES DANISH BACON by Peter Savage in Sheffield

It was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. England, who had dominated the women’s tournament in the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Challenge here in Sheffield, fell at the last hurdle. Only the women’s portion of the tournament requires the winner of the round-robin stages to play-off for first and second place and England, who were the only side to survive the early stages on maximum points, found themselves one behind against Denmark after only four minutes of play. On the last knockings of the first half, Marianne Nielsen converted a penalty corner in overtime, giving England a two goal deficit to overcome in the second half. Emma Thomas duly obliged with two fine goals in open play but Matilde Lundberg put the Danes back in front with nine minutes left on the clock. Battle as they could, England never managed to reassert the supremacy they had shown in previous matches. Just to add a cruel insult to injury, an England penalty corner in overtime went wide of the post. Denmark were ecstatic. England were distraught. A sad end to a very successful campaign for England’s women. Without taking anything away from the Dane’s performance, England failed to show the confidence they had shown in previous matches and the luck never seemed to go their way. Final score 3-2 to Denmark. Denmark win the tournament, with England in second place. Turkey were the surprise third place side after beating Sweden 1-0.

There were no surprises in the men’s tournament. England had to only win against Finland this afternoon to take the silver medal, which they did with goals by Richard Smith, Alistair Brogden, Adam Dixon (2) and Harry Jawanda. Sweden finish top of the pool, with England as runners-up. Both are promoted to the EuroHockey Indoor Trophy, which is next due to be held in two years time.

Photographs from the last three days will appear on our main web site soon. The EuroHockey Indoor Nations Challenge will feature in the next edition of our on-line magazine, HockeyTalk, which will be available from Thursday. Go to our web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk.

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