RESULTS in South West Division 2 (East) could hardly have gone better for Maidenhead RFC on Saturday, as all three of their promotion rivals slumped to shock defeats.
Mid-table Windsor provided the biggest upset of the day, as they battled their way to an 18-15 home win over league leaders Oxford Harlequins.
But Abbey and Salisbury can also feel justly proud of themselves, having inflicted 23-3 and 20-7 defeats on Chippenham and Swanage & Wareham respectively.
However, to close the gap on Oxford, Maidenhead still needed to beat struggling Amersham & Chiltern at Braywick, which they did, albeit slightly fortuitously.
A poor first-half showing left the game locked in a uninspiring stalemate at the interval, with the scores level at 6-6.
However, three second-half tries in the space of six minutes finally sealed the win for the home side.
Coach Tony Brooks said: “To be quite honest, the first half was pretty dire.
"It was clueless, lacked inspiration and I was distinctly unimpressed. They (Maids) just weren't competing.
"I said as much at half-time and in the second half everyone decided to pull their fingers out.
"It was down to the players to get to grips with it and in the second half they had a totally different attitude.”
Saturday’s result means Maids are back where they were two weeks ago, before their disappointing defeat at Chippenham.
And, if the Braywick side can avoid any further set-backs, they are back on course for a title decider at Oxford in March.
Brooks said: "It's slightly galling we lost last week, or we really would be in a strong position.
“What it demonstrates is anyone, on their day, is capable of causing problems for other sides.
“It might just be a question of a few injuries here or there, or a bit of luck.
“But a lot of the sides from lower in the league are playing well at the moment.
“They don't just roll over and let you walk on them.”
He added: “If you look at the run-ins for the top four sides, there are still some difficult games to be played, particularly for Oxford Harlequins.
"I'm not sure there won't be more defeats for the top teams before the season's out.
“It's far from over yet."

Tomorrow (Saturday), Maids get to test their luck against Salisbury at Braywick.
Brooks said: "They may be off the promotion pace, but they still want to do well.
"And they've had a couple of good wins lately, so it won't be an easy game.
"But we're going to be up for it and we want to win.”
The game will kick-off early, at 2pm, allowing spectators to watch the Six Nations clash between England and France in the bar after the match.