Match report courtesy of the

IN-FORM Maidenhead finally got a monkey off their back with a historic first victory at Weston on Saturday. The success was a notable scalp for the visitors and propelled them up to a heady third place in South West 1.

Maids made the worst possible start when a speculative Weston high kick in the second minute was fielded by Stuart Mackay but his long awkward pass to Max Wilcocks was dropped allowing home winger Madamombe to pick up and walk in under the posts. This was converted by fly-half Reid.

Rob Hawkins reduced the arrears with a penalty but Reid increased the home lead to 10-3 with a similar kick. Young Maids winger Alex Cannon received a yellow card for an over-zealous early tackle chasing a high kick, but Maids began to settle down with some good attacking running from the backs inter-passing with the forwards.

With pinpoint throwing in by hooker Richie Craig, a succession of clear takes in the lineout were won by Greg Riley, Brendan Lynch and Mark Mueller, and the pack repeatedly made much ground from rolling mauls which the home side found difficult to stop legally.

Hawkins reduced the arrears with a good penalty and then fielded a long kick ahead by Weston to start an attack with a long pass to Mackay. He injected his own brand of side-stepping which eventually gave Wilcox the chance to show his skills before touching down for an excellent try, converted by Hawkins to put Maids 13-10 ahead.

Although Richards and Noble in the home second row won most of their own ball, the Weston backs' handling was never threatening while the clean lineout ball won by Riley and Lynch gave the dangerous duo of Jonny Hammond and Wilcox in the centre, plenty of room.

Maids continued to look dangerous and a long break by Wilcox gave Cannon what appeared to be a perfect final scoring pass, only to be adjudged forward, and then following another long rolling maul, Hammond pounded the home line only to be stopped by a desperate tackle.

Maids were winning so much ground with their rolling maul orchestrated by Craig that it was inevitable that home second row Richards was yellow carded for pulling the maul down.

The visitors made the most of the man advantage when a rolling maul, after a clear catch by Riley, led to Craig being propelled over the line for an excellent forwards try. Hawkins kicked another penalty for 21-10.

The hosts fought back scoring a good try, after three or four phases of recyling the ball, when centre Ewens went over the line in the corner. Alex Gallina and Simon Cripps came on for Cannon and Joe Thomas, and Maids continued to be well on top with Wilcox, Hammond and Mackay proving too big a handful for the home defence, while the forwards continued to dominate in the tight through the front five giving the back row of Lynch, Riley and Mark Parkhouse the chance to shine in the loose.

Simon Carter at scrum half snapped at Weston¹s heels like a fox terrier and skipper fly-half Mark Ruddick orchestrated the game well keeping Weston pinned back with some long touch-finders and released his powerful back line at every opportunity.

After continuous pressure, Mackay made a blindside break giving Mueller an inside pass who bounced at least four home defenders before touching down for the final try to give Maids an excellent well deserved win by 11 points.