Hockey: Hosts Grove Menzieshill fall to Americans in final

Grove Menzieshill paid the ultimate penalty when they lost a dramatic shoot-out 2-1 to Team USA in the final of their own indoor tournament at the International Sports Centre in Dundee after the sides drew 4-4 in normal time. The normally-reliable Gavin Tomlinson missed the first effort from the spot and, although Chris Wilson did find the net, it was all over when Kerr Thompson's flick hit the bar.

It started well enough for the Taysiders when Wilson opened the scoring from a set-piece, but Pat Harris entered the fray in style with a quickfire hat-trick to put the Americans 3-1 in front. Menzieshill clawed their way back into the contest before the interval, Gavin Byers pulled one back from a penalty corner and then veteran Kenny Stibbles coolly rounded the keeper for the equaliser.

Harris got his fourth for the visitors early in the second-half, but that was immediately cancelled out by Wilson. Earlier, Menzieshill completed the pool competition with a perfect record following a 5-1 win over the Scotland Under-21 squad.

The Scots youngsters finished on a high note by doing the double over American Eagles in the bronze medal play-off, where Josh Cairns notched a hat-trick and Scott Sutherland got the other in a 4-3 finish.

In the women's final Grove Menzieshill saw off Milne Craig Western 3-0 to reverse the earlier result in the pool match. All the goals came in the first-half - Ali Bell opened in seven minutes with a shot from the middle of the circle, Kerry Hall added a second and Bell completed the scoring just on the interval.

Scotland's junior women finished a rather frustrating tournament by losing twice to VWS Dundee Wanderers in the final pool match and again in the bronze medal fixture, and must be hating the sight of Vikki Bunce, who scored a total of nine goals over the two games. The youngsters lost 9-4 to Wanderers in the bronze match, their goals coming from the CALA Edinburgh pair of Fiona Plain (2) and Amy Brodie with the other scored by Morag McLellan.