YOUNG hockey star Will Musgrave from Burley-in-Wharfedale has just returned from Poland where he helped England Under-18s win the second European Nations Cup.

Will and his teammates played in Gniezno in Poland in a tournament consisting of two pools. England played Croatia, Italy and the Czech Republic. Wales were in the other pool playing Denmark, Poland and Switzerland.

England made a confident start beating Croatia 16-0. Will came on mid-way through the first-half and scored within five minutes. The team felt they should have scored more and the concern was that the goal difference could be a telling factor later in the tournament.

On the Wednesday they played Italy, whose hockey players have the same emotive feelings about umpiring decisions as their footballing colleagues do about referees.

This made for a an exciting prospect and when the score was 2-1 at half-time, with England having scored twice only for Italy to come back, it looked as though the second-half would be tense. After a cat and mouse initial exchanges England ran away with the game and finished 7-1 victors.

Thursday was a rest day so Friday saw the last group match against the Czech Republic, this did not prove to be a test of the English defence and they ran out 8-0 winners with Will scoring one.

Wales had had a tough group game against Poland and had narrowly lost 3-2. Their final group game was against Switzerland which Wales were winning until seven minutes to go when they let the Swiss back into the game and then lost it in the final minute. This gave Switzerland second place and a semi-final against England.

The game against the Swiss started tensely with the Swiss scoring first. England equalised and the score remained 1-1 for much of the first-half. England won a series of short corners and from one of these Will broke the deadlock with a well struck shot going in off the post. The final score was 6-1 with Will scoring his second before the end.

The final against Poland was all set to be the game of the tournament. Polish TV were filming the game anticipating a home victory. England however started the game like an express train and were two up in six minutes and never gave the Poles a chance. Will scored again and England ran away with the game winning 6-0 leaving them with a record of played five, won five. They scored 44 goals and only conceded two.

This was an emphatic display and they thoroughly deserved their gold medals.

Will learned his hockey with the Ben Rhydding club but to maintain his chances of retaining Eng land selection he is to move to play for Bowden in Cheshire as there are no National League clubs with water-based pitches in this area.