Ipswich 9 Indian Gymkhana 3

Slazenger England League

East Conference

Ipswich 9 Indian Gymkhana 3

IPSWICH were heavily defeated at home by an impressive Indian Gymkhana side that showed ruthlessness in front of goal. The home side battled well in the first half, and were unlucky to find themselves 5-3 down at half time, but the West Londoner's put in a brilliant second-half performance to comfortably sail away from the Suffolk side.

Ipswich went into the game missing almost a quarter of their team thanks to England Hockey's controversial Junior Regional Performance Centre, which required Ipswich's junior international talent to be at a training weekend rather than competing in the National League. Despite this, Ipswich still had a side more than capable of getting something from this match, and were boosted by the return of forward Richard Rutterford to the fold. Indian Gymkhana have had a great start to the season, helped by the arrival of former England central midfielder Manpreet Kochar who joined from English Champions Reading.

The home side made a decent start to the game, playing well structured hockey in a bid to frustrate their skilful, attack-minded opponents. However, a penalty corner won by Gymkhana's star man Tejinder Hanspal was clinically dispatched by Jagdeep Gill. Moments later, Ipswich levelled the scores when midfielder Geoff Reed pounced on a loose ball in the circle to force it over the line, but it was not long until Gymkhana re-established their lead when Gill slammed in another powerful penalty corner effort. Ipswich were determined to keep their opponents within touching distance, and immediately went on the offensive in search of an equaliser, which they duly claimed thanks to a tidy finish from Mark Wrinch in the 14th minute. With more than 55 minutes of hockey still left to play, the large crowd knew that they would see plenty more goals in this match, and only had to wait another minute before Teijinder Hanspal raced onto an overhead pass before dribbling past Ipswich keeper Tony Burch and passing into an open goal. Four minutes later Gymkhana moved into a 4-2 lead when Gill completed a stunning hat-trick of penalty corners, firing unstoppably into the roof of the net. At 4-2, Ipswich needed a lifeline, and were given it when Kier Dixon scored a 33rd minute penalty corner, but the relief was to be short-lived as Hanspal showed exactly why he is one of the most feared players in the National League with a terrific solo effort.

The second half was very much dominated by Indian Gymkhana, who took advantage with a series of outstanding counter-attacking moves against an Ipswich side forced to press forward in search of goals. Pravinder Hanspal made the score 6-3 in the 43rd minute when he tapped in from close range before Teijinder Hanspal completed his hat-trick four minutes later with another high class attack. Kier Dixon went close on two occasions with solid penalty corner efforts, and when Richard Stainthorpe's diving reverse stick strike hit the post with 15 minutes left, the home side knew it was not going to be their day.

Teijinder Hanspal collected his fourth goal of the game in the 64th minute, before Ipswich defender Mark Wheelhouse lost his cool with one of the umpires and was sent off for his sins. Laveen Jandu completed the scoring for Gymkhana in the 66th minute, but there was still time for Richard Rutterford to join Wheelhouse in the sin bin for making a comment which the umpire interpreted as dissent.