COMMONWEALTH GAMES: JAMES Fair says England will have their work cut out when they take on Pakistan for the right to reach the men's hockey final at the Commonwealth Games.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper from Pulford will be part of the England squad aiming for a semi-final victory in Melbourne this morning.
A win for England would see them take on either Malaysia or hosts Australia for the right to win gold in Sunday's final.
Fair, a former Deeside Ramblers player, said: 'Everything is going really well so far.
'It should be a really tight game against Pakistan as they are ranked higher than us and have scored quite a few goals in their group. The group games went well and to beat New Zealand in the first game set up the tournament for us.'
Despite a heavy defeat to Australia, England put themselves in pole position for second spot in pool A after they defeated Canada 5-1.
A semi-final place was guaranteed when pool A winners Australia recorded a 5-2 win over New Zealand.
In artistic gymnastics, Bunbury's Beth Tweddle sat the competition out through injury but Saltney's Melanie Roberts competed well on all four apparatus to help Wales finish fourth in the team event.
But the 17-year-old could finish only 18th out of 24 in the all-round final, failing to make it into any of the apparatus finals.
Earlier this week, Waverton's Suzy Drane and her Wales netball teammates fell to their third successive defeat - a 74-21 drubbing by Jamaica - before beating Barbados.
They came off the foot of pool B but had no chance of qualifying for the later stages.
In boxing, there was a surprise when Vauxhall Motors ABC's Nick MacDonald - rated a genuine medal-contender for England - was beaten in the 54kg division.
The 22-year-old was well beaten by South Africa's Bongani 'Wonder Boy' Mahlangu.
