Surbiton six competing for Olympic place

5:19pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

Surbiton Hockey Club's six England internationals face an anxious summer to see if they will still be among the 16 players that make the trip to Beijing this August.

Richard Alexander, Matt Daly, Ben Hawes, Ben Marsden, Rob Moore and James Tindall formed a third of the 18-strong squad that won the second Olympic Qualifier in Chile in March - the most from any one club.

However, because of participation restrictions, only 16 players will be on the plane that leaves for the Olympic holding camp in Macau on July 23.

To ensure that they are among them, the Surbiton six now have to negotiate nine friendly internationals, maintaining form and avoiding injury, before the Olympic squad is selected on June 20.

They start with three games at the world's top seeds, Germany - in Dusseldorf on Thursday and Sunday and Essen on Saturday.

Germany only sealed the last of the three remaining places for Beijing by finishing top of the third six-nation qualifier in Japan last month.

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