Hockey: Leaders' tough trip

Cannock, the National League leaders, travel to London for two tough fixtures this weekend. Today Cannock, who expect to be at full strength, play the unpredictable Teddington, who have Luke Hodges on his return after knee surgery, and tomorrow they move a little further south to take on Guildford.

Guildford, despite a recent run of good results, are still not out of the relegation zone. Their player-coach Ian Jennings injured a hand in the Inter-Services on Wednesday and damaged it again on Thursday. He plans to play and predicts that if Guildford beat Barford Tigers today and rule out relegation, they will return to their natural attacking game and beat Cannock.

Canterbury, three points behind Cannock, are at home to the two bottom clubs - Beeston today and Doncaster tomorrow.

England and Scotland battles are always something rather special and this weekend's two women's games at Lilleshall are unlikely to be an exception. Scotland, who have already announced their World Cup squad for Utrecht in May, will be parading their selected squad on both days while England, who do not make their choice until the end of the month, will be using all 22 players from their training squad.

The International Hockey Federation has announced that the no offside experimental rule is to become permanent and that as from 2 July no more substitutions, except for injury, will be allowed at penalty corners.