SA clinch hockey series

PRETORIA -- The South African men's hockey side clinched the best-of-five match hockey series against England yesterday with a 3-2 victory in the final international at the Pretoria Technikon after leading 2-1 at half-time.

The victory saw SA take the series 2-1 with two of the Tests having been drawn.

Not only was it a confidence booster ahead of September's Commonwealth Games in Malaysia but also SA's first home series win since beating Zimbabwe in 1993.

Mike Cullen opened the scoring for SA as early as the fifth minute after picking up a Craig Fulton cross from the left, but Howard Hoskin equalised for the visitors in the 14 minutes later when the SA defence was caught flat-footed against the run of play.

Murray Anderson put the home side back in front 10 minutes before half-time with a long range effort from just inside the circle.

Unlike the first half, SA were very much up against it in the second but managed to keep England at bay. Their ability to do so can be attributed in the main to the efforts of world class goalkeeper Brian Myburgh, who pulled off a sequence of miraculous saves -- including one from the penalty spot.

However, even he was unable to stop English midfielder James Wallis from levelling the score nine minutes from the hooter.