Richard Dodds, Britain's gold medal captain in the Seoul Olympics, captained a strong Festival XI to an impressive 8-1 win against Royal Uccle from Belgium at Folkestone yesterday as the international festival celebrated its 90th year, writes Bill Colwill.
In a side bristling with internationals the outstanding player was Matthias Krause, nephew of the former German international Michael, who dominated the game from midfield, scored twice and brought two spectacular saves at penalty corners from the Belgian goalkeeper Pierre Zerghe.
After a bright start the Belgian side lost their way, finding the Festival defence, consisting of Dodds and his Seoul colleague David Faulkner, impregnable. The Welsh international Jon Rees weathered an assault from behind by the Uccle goalkeeper to jab the ball home for the opening goal after 17 minutes.
Two goals from the Welsh captain, David Hacker, and Krause's first gave the Festival side a 4-0 interval lead. With Reading's Howard Hoskin showing some deft touches, the Festival XI continued to entertain.
Julian Mills put them further ahead shortly after the interval before Erik Gierts pulled a goal back for the visitors before Krause and Rees collected their second goals of the afternoon and New Zealander Grant Edwards completed the scoring.
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