England heap shame on final botch

A day in the TV limelight is spoilt by a misguided protest after an umpiring bungle.

Hockey does not often have the opportunity to put itself in the television shop window and the sport's international federation should be furious, as well as deeply embarrassed, over the outcome of Saturday's women's final.

The gold medal match between India and England, shown live on the BBC, ended in such disarray that nobody was certain who had won until more than hour after the match had finished.

It had been a game of considerable and exciting fluctuations and in the end England had only themselves to blame for losing. They were so dominant in the first half that India did not muster a single attack in the opening 20 minutes. But England failed to capitalise, lost concentration to go 2-0 down and then, having squared the match, were beaten by a golden goal from a penalty corner in the first period of extra-time.

There the matter should have ended, but for an umpiring mistake by New Zealand's Lyn Farrell, who appeared to rule the goal out because the computer-generated hooter had gone fractionally before the ball crossed the line.

Under the rules of the game a corner has to be finished even if time has run out. The Indians understood this perfectly well, whereas Farrell and the entire England team and management appeared - or perhaps chose - not to.

Faced by a vigorous and justified protest by the Indian players, Farrell consulted the second umpire, Julie Ashton-Lucy of Australia, and a tech nical official, Paula Parker of Canada, also intervened. The legitimate goal was duly awarded but, misguidedly, the England management then protested, thereby committing everybody to a long wait.

With the result upheld, England waived the right to seek an appeal, deciding it would be against the "spirit of the Friendly Games". But by this time it was too late and the damage was done. These were weasel words from bad losers. It was obvious enough that Farrell had made an error, one which England should have accepted immediately with good grace once she had changed her mind. Instead the England players stayed on the pitch for a good half-hour after the golden goal had been scored, scowling across at the Indians who were celebrating their unexpected win.

Clearly, having dominated so much of the final and beaten Australia, the favourites, England were frustrated and upset to have lost but their protest did nothing for their own image or that of the sport, which regularly gets itself tangled in its arcane procedures, frequently brought about by inadequate umpiring.

Obviously both the Indian and England players believed that Farrell's cross-hand signal indicated she had ruled the goal out but even the post-match attempts to clarify the situation were opaque. Evlyn Raistrick, the technical delegate, admitted that the "due process was unfortunate" but would go no further than to say that there had been a "mistake in the signalling".

The International Hockey Federation must surely review its procedures to prevent such a fiasco recurring, as well as making sure its umpires understand and abide by the rules.

While the Australian-born England coach Tricia Heberle rightly praised her team for their overall performance, she and the England management were too late with the positive spin. It could not erase the damage of earlier churlishness.

· Jamie Dwyer scored a hat-trick as Australia retained their Commonwealth title with a 5-2 win over New Zealand, which was never in doubt after they raced to a 4-0 half-time lead. Sohail Abbas scored five in Pakistan's 10-2 thrashing of South Africa for the bronze medal.