Match report and photo courtesy of the

Inclement weather threatened to rain on Maidenhead’s parade at Braywick on Saturday, as freshly promoted Chippenham took full advantage of the elements to dampen their hosts’ ardour.

But class finally told, as Maids cut loose in the final quarter to record a relatively comfortable win. Kicking-off their opening game of the league campaign, a slightly make-shift Maidenhead side made their intentions clear from the off. Piling on the pressure, they quickly drove play up to Chippenham’s 22 and won a penalty, which fullback Rob Hawkins swept between the uprights for a 3-0 lead.

That pressure continued from the restart, with the visitors’ scrum showing early signs of distress, a theme which prevailed throughout the game. Indeed, a thrashing seemed to be in the offing when centre Jonny Hammond burst free and made 25 yards before off-loading to Mark Ruddick, whose long pass to winger Sam Hocking gifted the youngster a try in the corner. However, this proved to be Maids’ final score of the half, as a host of factors conspired to derail their carefully constructed game plan.

Firstly, some questionable refereeing decisions gave the home fans plenty to complain about. Secondly, there were some basic mistakes from the team, with Danny Martin raising a loud groan from the stand on 22 minutes, when the nimble speedster knocked on just a foot short of the line. Then thirdly, the heaven’s opened, signalling an end to Maids’ dominance, as the greasy ball made slick, running rugby virtually impossible. Worse still, while Maids were still pondering Plan B, Chippenham grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and drove play deep into enemy territory. Forced to defend inside their own 22, Maidenhead managed to hold out for 10 long minutes, until Chippenham scrum-half Andy Williamson nicked the ball off the back of a scrum and darted over the line to make it 8-5 at the break.

The Wiltshire side now had the bit between their teeth and had a chance to square things up on 52 minutes, when Cormac O’Byrne was penalised for boring in at the scrum. Williamson stepped up to convert, but his effort fell just short of the posts. Maids sensed their luck had finally changed and that belief was confirmed on 58 minutes, when Hammond scored the cheekiest of tries, right behind the Chippenham posts. Having set up good field position, Ruddick appeared to have squandered an overlap when he elected to go for a drop goal. The ball skewed well wide of the right-hand upright, but while the crowd were still moaning Hammond sprinted through a static defence to touch down. Hawkins added the extras and Maids were back in the driving seat at 15-5.

Substitute scrum-half Ben Ayres wasted a two-man overlap minutes later, but Maids retained the initiative and deservedly stretched the lead to 15 points on 24 minutes, when Hocking went over in the corner for a regulation winger’s try. Chippenham were now a spent force and Maids sealed the win in injury time, when Hawkins bisected the posts with a second successful penalty kick to make it 23-5 at the final whistle. The result sent Maids straight into second spot in the league, while Chippen- ham took the reverse position at the bottom. However, if points-difference comes to play a part in promotion or demotion this season, Maids will be kicking themselves for not putting away more of their chances.

Maidenhead: Hawkins, Hocking, Hammond, Cripps, Martin, Ruddick, Edwards, O’Byrne, Dance, Johnson, Gallina, Mueller, Vorster, Lowden, Jones. Subs: Ayres (for Edwards), Morgan (for Jones), Blackwell (for Johnson). Chippenham: Martin, Surry, Rogers, Champion, McMillan, Spiers, Williamson, Kirby, Spence, Livesey, Doyle, Thorton, Gibbon, Sherratt, Cheeseman. Subs: Parry-Curtis, Squires, Fereday.

MAIDENHEAD coach Simon Edwards was satisfied with a job well done on Saturday, but admitted there was still room for improvement. He said: “Chippenham gave us a battle, but it was the weather and the refereeing decisions that kept them in it. “Yes we struggled a bit in the lineout, but it was Jody’s first game in two years. So I was pleased with our performance overall, although we have a long way to go if we want to push the top four in the league. There’s a lot of work to do. There were some poor handling errors on Saturday and the wrong options were taken. But that’s early season rugby for you.” One exception was man of the match Jonny Hammond who dominated the midfield, both in defence and attack, as well as bagging a cheeky try. n Tomorrow (Saturday) Maids welcome Cornish side Penryn to Braywick in the Powergen National Trophy, kick-off 2.30pm. Edwards said: “ I’m delighted we’ve got this game. They went to Abbey last week and lost by 10 points, and they have to come up again and play us in the league in two week’s time. “So they won’t want to be coming up here this week as well. And there’s no pressure on us, because it’s a cup game. I’m looking forward to it.”