Services too good for AP

Services routed Andhra Pradesh 5-0 while Jammu and Kashmir held West Bengal to a 1-1 draw in the opening matches of the National Games men's hockey competition, at the Surjit Singh stadium in Jalandhar, on Tuesday.

The strong services side outclassed Andhra in all departments of the game.The winners opened their account in the 17th minute when skipper M Cypriana slammed home a penalty-corner.

After the breather, the Services forward line showed better coordination and mounted an all-out assault on the rival defence, scoring four field goals.

In the 46th minute Paramjit Singh scored the seocnd goal and four minutes later Harjit Singh collected a pass inside the penalty area and sounded the boards to make it 3-0.

The fourth goal came in the 58th minute through Sosan Topno. In the very next minute M Lokande found the mark to complete the rout.

In the second match of the day, Jammu and Kashmir held West Bengal despite being under intense pressure. Bengal led 1-0 at half-time through a field goal, scored a minute before the breather by Anil Ekka.

In the second half, J& K mounted a few attacks on the Bengal defence and in the 58 th minute they were awarded a penalty-corner. Gurjit Singh made no mistake to restore parity.

Pools redrawn for women's hockey

Meanwhile, the Games in Punjab continue to spring surprises.

Till last night media persons were being told that Chandigarh will take on Manipur in the first match of the women's hockey on Tuesday, but on reaching the venue they found that Jharkand had replaced Manipur. They were told that Jharkhand was included in the competition on the 18th evening.

The officials said the Indian Womens' Hockey Federation brought in Jharkhand after the state contended that many of its players were earlier in the Bihar team that qualified for the Games and considering the quality of their players they should be allowed to compete.

Now there are nine teams in contention for the gold. The pools have been redrawn. Maharashtra, UP, Punjab and Orissa, which were in Pool 'A' earlier have now been placed in Pool 'B', which has Manipur as fifth team.

Pool 'A' now includes Bihar, Haryana, Chandigarh, which was earlier in Pool 'B'. New entrant Jharkhand has been placed in this pool.

Tuesday's women's hockey results:
Chandigarh beat Jharkhand 4-2
Punjab beat Orissa 3-0
Haryana beat Bihar 13-0
Maharashtra beat Uttar Pradesh 5-1.

While Punjab and Manipur did the bulk of the gold shopping on the opening day which had nine gold medals at stake, Services and Tamil Nadu were the two other states who opened their account with a gold each. Manipur, traditionally strong in the fencing event, which is being held at Anandpur Sahib, bagged both the gold medals on offer on Tuesday.

Displaying superior skills, Manipur's Deepak snatched the gold in the men's epee individual event, defeating Kerala's Sachin 15-11, while his teammate Geeta Devi took the title in the foil individual event in the women's section.

In table tennis events being held in Jalandhar, men's defending champions Bengal and strong contenders Tamil Nadu launched their campaigns in style, winning both their group league matches on a day which saw no major upsets.

The Tamil Nadu and Bengal women paddlers also kept up the good work displayed by their male counterparts by trouncing their group league opponents with comfortable margins.