IT IS going to be a busy summer for Surbiton Hockey Club's current England internationals Brett Garrard, James Wallis and Billy Waugh (writes Sen Cotter).

The three continue their preparations for the Commonwealth Games with a squad training camp and then two practice games against a Premier League XI at Canterbury this Sunday and Monday.

All three have already added two more full England caps to their tally in a one-off test series against Malaysia held at the new Games' hockey venue in Belle Vue, Manchester, last week.

The opening 3-2 win on Tuesday saw Waugh, a sports master at King's College School, Wimbledon, force the penalty corner from which Cannock's Craig Parnham put England into a 2-1 half-time lead. A 24th-minute Malaysian penalty corner strike had equalised Mark Pearn's opening goal from free play.

Reading's Pearn, who lives in Surbiton, also got the winner, from a 56th-minute penalty corner, after Malaysia had equalised a second time.

The second test match, played on Wednesday, was a dour affair, with Danny Hall scoring the only goal from a well-worked penalty corner move in the 51st minute.

Wallis, a market research executive from Esher, and Garrard, a hockey coach who now lives in Surbiton, are both former pupils of Kingston Grammar School.

England have two more practice matches, both at Belle Vue, against South Africa on Monday July 22 and then against New Zealand two days later, before they start their Commonwealth Games' pool matches there against Pakistan on Saturday July 27.

July 8, 2002 17:00