Saturday 19th September 2009

EHL Conference East

Ipswich v Old Loughtonians

Result: Drew 1-1

Scorers :V Roberts

Ipswich claimed their first point of the season on the opening day of the English Hockey League, with a 1-1 draw against last season’s runners up Old Loughtonians. 

Whilst not too disappointed with a point, the home side will reflect on a performance that should have claimed all three. In fact the visitors only claimed a share of the spoils with a goal in the last minute of the game. 

The game started evenly with both sides looking to claim some midfield dominance but with some great work by Ipswich midfielders Vanessa Roberts and Jess Bloom the home side began to run proceedings. 

A succession of short corners should have seen Ipswich open their account but two goal line clearances kept the scores level. 

Half time arrived with Ipswich now dominating possession and birthday girl, Goal keeper, Fiona Stacey was a virtual observer.

Ipswich knew if they kept creating chances then their time would come and sure enough on the 50^th Minute Ipswich converted a short corner. Vanessa Roberts firing in an unstoppable shot to the bottom corner. The fact that this was scored when Ipswich were down to 10 players was even more satisfying. Anna Sherring being shown a harsh yellow card for not retreating 5 meters. 

The Suffolk side now were totally dominating every area of the pitch, player of the match Lizzy Aldous creating opportunities with her numerous rampaging runs down the right hand side of the pitch. 

Also impressing on their national league debuts were Anna Sherring, Millie McWhirter and Annabelle Driver. All three played a large part in the home sides impressive passages of play and on this display they have big futures in this sport. 

With time ticking on Ipswich pressed for that all important second goal and despite numerous chances they could not find another way through the visitors defence. 

Another yellow card for Ipswich midfelder Jess Bloom, again for not being 5 meters left the home side once again with only 10 players and the visitors saw one last chance to grab something from the game. With only seconds left on the clock Old Loughtonians won a short corner and much to the disappointment of the home crowd they converted it to share in the points.

 Despite the disappointment of dominating the game but having to share the points Ipswich are able to reflect on a whole host of positive outcomes that they will take into next weeks derby game against Chelmsford.

The Suffolk side know that they will need to be more clinical in front of goal but if they reproduce some of their general play then they will be more than capable of taking all three points.

NE14hockey East League

Div1 North

Ipswich v Bury St Edmunds

Result: Won 4-3

Scorer: C Bedingfield, V Sandall, K McDonald, J Gray

Despite going onto the pitch determined to beat local rivals Bury, Ipswich 2s went 2-0 down in first 5 minutes. After this shaky start, Ipswich managed to re-gain composure and begin to play their game. Both teams battled hard to generate opportunities in attack, but both also relinquished possession too easily. After 15 minutes Ipswich midfielder Vic Sandal won a flick which was converted by forward Connie Bedingfield bringing the score-line closer at to 2-1 to Bury. Ipswich now began to dominate possession and following some great attacking play down the right wing, Kat McDonald scored her first goal in her debut match. The half time score was 2-2. 

In the second half Ipswich continued to play the better hockey and a goal from Vic Sandal put them 3-2 up. Bury continued to battle on and again pulled the score-line back to a draw. Despite continuing to give away possession too easily at times Ipswich continued to look the dominant side, with some great attacking movement. Their efforts were rewarded when an attack down the right wing drew the Bury keeper wide and a shot from midfielder Lucy Gallagher was tapped in by Captain Jo Gray, bringing her team back into the lead. Ipswich managed to hold the score-line at 4-3 until the final whistle. Full time score: 4-3 to Ipswich who are currently sitting at 4th place in the league. MOTM was awarded to Vic Sandal and 'Personal Best' was awarded to Kat McDonald in her debut match for the 2s.

 NE14HOCKEY East League

Div 2C

UEA v  Ipswich 

Result: Won 6-0

Scorers: Fran Tew (3) Abbie Elsom Alex Crump Roisin Anderson-Hurst

The first league game of the season and we’re off up the A140, that road we love to hate – has it really been a whole 4 months since last time?! A nice time to play the University side who are normally somewhat disorganised in the first half of the season, but unfortunately the weather was oppressively hot which begs the question why the British summer chose now to make an appearance...

The game got off to a reasonably balanced start but it really wasn’t long before the pace settled and Ipswich established themselves as the stronger side. An awesome start to the season saw the 3s 4-0 up at half-time with a very healthy final scoreline of 6-0.

With no further ado and in no particular order, the goals were...a short corner right slip to Abbie Elsom who’s top-D strike found its way neatly to the backboard, and another top-D strike – this time from Alex Crump (a.k.a. Crumpy) – which similarly had no trouble making its way through a flustered defence. Roisin Anderson-Hurst scored a simple ball from the P-spot where she was cleverly positioned, allowing Vickey Dixon to do all the hard stick-twiddly stuff before politely stealing all the glory. It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it. All of the above were cruelly overshadowed by a Fran Tew hat-trick however (and yes, we’re still trying to work out what the right back was doing in the attacking circle); a near post deflection after a short corner injection, and two others, both close quarter lifted balls, one to each side of the keeper.

Special mention to Alex Chidgey who’s application of the new rule at long corners out-foxed several defenders several times, and also to Sarah Logan for excellent organisation of the defence who maintained a clean sheet and were always available (and often used) for switching the play around the back.

Fran stole Man of the Match by a country mile due to her rather ostentatious hat-trick, and Vickey of course won the Wooden Spoon Award due to involvement in the usual umpire antics as time had to be stopped in order to allow a full discussion of her behaviour! The officials were perhaps a little pedantic at times but the game survived well as everyone was getting used to the new rules which kept the game-pace high and gives the ‘taking’ team a clear advantage.

Other incidents worthy of note: A Crumpy face dive, a Logan wipeout, Dixon disco dancing and some ridiculous post-match Elsom antics. Off to Norwich again next week, a tough game against Norwich Dragons 1, a successful team from last year who will provide an interesting challenge for an Ipswich 3rd team which has a number of new members and still need to get used to playing together. Another 6-0 ladies?! Why not.

Suffolk Premier League

Suffolk Div 1

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Sunday 20th September

EH Cup Round1

Wapping v Ipswich

Result: Won 3-1

Scorers : M Stackpoole, M Wrinch, K Dixon

Ipswich travelled to Central London for the first round of the National Cup to face Wapping. Ipswich had an added incentive to do well against Wapping as their former centre back Asif Rais featured in the opposing line-up. 

Ipswich, after a good pre-season warm-up, were determined to do well in their first competitive game of the new campaign, despite missing last year’s captain Ivan Smith, Max Underwood and Richard Stainthorpe. It was still a strong and youthful Ipswich side that are rebuilding after relegation from the National League last year. 

Ipswich started the game off the stronger of the two sides and in the opening 10 minutes stamped their authority on the game with Stacpoole and Godfrey tormenting the opposition defence down the Ipswich right. Ipswich were moving the ball around the back with confidence, and the structure of the new look side was working well. After 20 minutes Ipswich's dominance paid off. Debutant Ben Underwood, playing at left back, fired a ball down the line for the on-running Keir Dixon. The pace of Dixon carried him past 2 defenders before offloading the ball across the D to the chasing Stacpoole. Stacpoole ghosted past the defender before firing a shot low across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.

After taking the lead Ipswich then went on the back foot and losing the structure meant the team lost their way. Ipswich spent the next 15 minutes camped in their own half, and Ipswich struggled to piece together a string of passes. Fortunately for the away side Man of the Match Josh Fry and keeper Glading were able to keep them in the game with some fine last ditch tackling and saves.

Ipswich were able to get through to half time still 1-0 up but conceded shortly after the break. Straight from the restart Ipswich went back in front with some good work down the right from Dykes, before finding Mark Wrinch in the D. From close range the midfielder flicked the ball into the net. Ipswich then played on the counter attack with Reed going close after stealing the ball from the last defender and going round the keeper only for a defender to stop it on the line. Dixon then missed a point blank effort from 5 yards and Ipswich were starting to miss chances. With time running out for Wapping Ipswich got a penalty corner in which Dixon flicked with real venom into the top left corner of the net. It was a fabulous way to finish the game with even the Wapping crowd applauding the goal.

NE14HOCKEY East League

Prem A

NE14HOCKEY East League

Div 2N

NE14HOCKEY East League 

NE14HOCKEY East League

East Veterans League

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