U8s triangular with Abbey & Swindon

Sunday 20th November 2005

Last Sunday took two Maidenhead U8s squads to Reading Abbey for a triangular fixture with Swindon.

The first match saw the home side Abbey going off to a fast start and managed to strike through the Maidenhead Lions defence reaching 3-1 by half time with the first Lion's try coming from Joel Greene.

In the second half, the Lions made a come back with a try from Oliver Malik and two more from Shane McKenna. However this was not enough to allow a win, leaving a narrow 5-4 defeat.

By the second game against Swindon, the Lions had woken up and began with an immediate try from Ben Lawrence. Some great footwork from Scott Prince gave Maids a couple more tries. Maids piled on the pressure earning tries from William Lawrence and Joel Greene leaving Maids 5-3 ahead at half time. The second half saw some superb running and passing from Abigail Dow allowing William Lawrence and Scott Prince to follow through and score. A great run from William Doolan, only to be tagged at the last second was also turned into a try due to superb support by Joel Greene. Yet more tries came from Oliver Malik and Scott Prince (racking up his 4th). The last part of the game had seen a tremendous effort from Swindon scoring 2 tries against the Lions, however this was not enough to catch up with the Maids earlier lead, leaving a final score of 5-10.

The Tiger’s first match was against a physically larger Swindon side who swiftly took the lead with a runaway try before Maidenhead had realised they were in a game. Maidenhead fought back, coming close on a number of occasions before James Millwater scored after a series of passes close to the Swindon line. Swindon showed their strength by scoring 3 tries in succession to take a 4-1 lead. Maidenhead pulled one back through Jonathan Matthews just before half time. Immediately after the break James Millwater crossed the line once more to bring Maidenhead into contention at 3-4. Swindon surged ahead yet again with 2 more tries before Lawrence Hull pulled one back for Maidenhead to make it 4-6. Swindon scored three tries to Maidenhead’s one through Nia Gardner to make it 5-9. Maidenhead had the final say with a Will Hogan try to finish with a 9 tries to 6 loss.

For their second match, the Tigers were determined to go home with a victory against Reading Abbey and stormed into the lead with a try in the corner by Jonathan Matthews. Abbey leveled the scores before Lawrence Hull scored after a blinding run to make it 2-1 at half time. Maidenhead dominated the second half with scores by Tom Kynaston and a further two by Jonathan Matthews to complete his hat trick. Excellent Maidenhead defence meant Abbey were unable to score, resulting in a comprehensive 5-1 victory for Maidenhead Tigers.