Maidenhead 3rds 15 v Tadley 2nds 7
Saturday 24th November 2007

The black and claret machine continued its march towards world domination with another determined performance against a Tadley 2nds that belied its league position. How the Tadley pack managed to lose to Slough is a question for likes of Steve McLaren? Maids, poised to take top spot, thought they were in for an easy ride but were much mistaken!

Maids started ominously with sustained pressure deep in Tadley's 22. Early clean lineout by John Wanklin saw the pack recycle possession, the backs ship it through the hands for Lester Martin to score a typical try in the corner - you can't teach that as Prinny would say. Prinny himself topped last season's record by crying off whilst lathering himself up in Vaseline before kickoff! Early promise swung in Tadley's favour when sustained pressure, brought on primarily from their pack, meant Maids were camped in their own 22 for long periods. The pressure culminated in Steve Bourne being sin binned on 22 minutes. On returning to the touchline Bourney insisted someone had swiped his Zimmer frame and that he had simply fallen onto the ruck - first time in an illustrious career! With depleted numbers Tadley immediately scored a try with conversion to take the score to 7-7.

Play resumed with Maids moving onto the front foot with Charlie Jarnet making some good line breaks and David Goodman pining Tadley back with kicks into the corners. A niggly game saw the Tadley scrum half binned for punching on 32 minutes. 6 minutes later the Maids produced almost a mirror image of their first try with the back line shipping it wide to John Sudbury who had a one-on-one to score in the corner. Late pressure from Tadley saw Wilkins clear the lines with the first period finishing 12-7.

The 2^nd period saw Maids extend their lead to 15-7 with a penalty from Rob Wilkins after 3 minutes. Some poor handling from the Tadley backs saw the equilibrium maintained albeit against the run of play. Continual Tadley pressure saw Maidenhead relieve their lines with some raking kicks out of defence. There was no let up for the Maids with some last ditch tackles from Charlie Jarnet, Rob Wilkins and Mark Bates to keep Tadley out - sterling stuff from a team who have showed an added dimension this season. Inconsistent reffing saw John Wanklin binned which made for a tense last 10 minutes. A rampaging, read it "rampaging" break from the artist known as Skud saw welcome relief for Maids. The finale of the half culminated in a last ditch penalty miss by Wilkins to see the newly crowned league leaders home.

All in all a surprising game that saw maids tested to the full against inconsistent opposition. Roll on Shire Hall, then the pre Xmas crunch game against Thatcham.

A special mention to the White Horse and Penn Motor Company Man of the Match Mark Bates - another gritty performance that embodies Maids new found resilience this season.

Mike "Junior Scoop" Anthony