East Indoor ChampionshipsIpswich 3 Sevenoaks 0 Ipswich 11 Cambridge City 2 Ipswich 5 Old Loughtonians 4Ipswich 3 Chelmsford 2Ipswich travelled to Cambridge on Saturday as the build up to the start of the English National Indoor League reached its climax with the East Indoor Championships.

East Indoor Championships

Ipswich 4 Sevenoaks 0

Ipswich 11 Cambridge City 2

Ipswich 5 Old Loughtonians 4

Ipswich 2 Chelmsford 3

Ipswich travelled to Cambridge on Saturday as the build up to the start of the English National Indoor League reached its climax with the East Indoor Championships.

Ipswich faced Sevenoaks in their first competitive indoor game since losing on penalty strokes to Bowdon in the semi-finals of the National Championships last February.

Sevenoaks won promotion to the Premier Indoor League last year so this was a good test for both sides.

Ipswich started slowly but, after a few early scares, soon began to find their feet and had the team from Kent on the ropes. A good team performance saw Ipswich cruise to a 4-0 win.

The teams second game was against Cambridge City, who had finished second the previous weekend to St Albans in the race for a place in Division Two of the Indoor National League.

City started brightly but two quick goals from Vic Sandall took the sting out of them and soon Ipswich were running up a large total. The final score line saw Ipswich comfortable 11-2 victors.

The final game on Saturday was against a Old Loughtonians side that had been relegated from the Indoor Premier League.

This was the toughest game so far and Ipswich looked sluggish after a three hour break. However, despite being pegged back to 4-4, Ipswich managed to dig deep and won 5-4 to see them advance into the final on Sunday.

Sunday saw them face Chelmsford, the team they had beaten last year to claim the title. Chelmsford took an early led through a short corner strike and Ipswich could not find a rhythm.

Then the Essex side scored a penalty stroke to make it 2-0. Ipswich seemed to finally wake up and Miriam Fabregas scored from a good move.

However, in the second half a strange umpiring decision saw Ipswich denied a stroke and Chelmsford hit the Suffolk side on the break and made it 3-1.

Stepping up their play the defending champions got back to 3-2 with a coolly taken goal by Lizzy Aldous but could not find the third goal as the clock ticked down.

Removing the goalkeeper saw Ipswich pin the Essex side in their half but it was not enough and Chelmsford won 3-2 and took the East title.

Ipswich now turn attentions to the main prize of the English Premier League and know that they still have some lessons to learn should they want to claim a top four finish and a place at the indoor finals day at the NIA for a fourth consecutive year.