Maidenhead & Windsor

Maidenhead Maids ran in five of their six tries in the second half to give old foes Reading Abbey one in the eye as they broke out of their shell.

Coach Simon Edwards gave all three of his recently signed Kiwis a decent slug of action while bringing his son Gareth back into the scrum-half role.

But an awkward first session with a bitter wind cutting to the bone as it does on the exposed Reading ground, saw Maidenhead fail to exploit a following wind.

Eventually the Reading pack ran out of steam after the two sides had reached the interval at 10-5 and Maidenhead were able to play a more expansive game which brought their backs back into the limelight.

But it was in the first half that Maidenhead Maids got bogged down and they survived an early scare when the Reading winger broke clear, but pulled up short of the line with a painful hamstring pull.

Maidenhead Maids skipper Mark Ruddick had the first points on the board with a penalty after two minutes and went on to score a try after the break and end the day with a success rate of five out of six for conversions.

His first came after Maids' hooker Richie Craig had been in the right place at the right time in the 16th minute to finish off and give Ruddick an easy kick.

But the lead was halved when Reading replied in the 23rd minute with the first of their forward tries which went unconverted.

Neither side seemed to be comfortable at this stage and ground out the rest of the half in dour fashion.

But Edwards must have sprinkled some stardust on his players during the interval as they came out a different side for the rest of the game.

The points started coming when Mark Mueller, scorer of four tries in the 97-3 rout of Spartans the previous week, bundled his way over after 47 minutes with Ruddick's boot adding the extra points.

The only blip on Maidenhead's horizon came five minutes later when an Abbey drive ended with another of their forwards falling on the ball for another five points - the kick on this occasion, going unconverted.

From here on in it was all Maids, with winger Adam Ellwood getting through in the 58th and 83rd minutes, the final try being wide out and beyond the skill of his skipper.

However, fly half Ruddick enhanced his season's tally when he finished off a typically slick move from the Maidenhead backs after 70 minutes when running in their fourth try under the posts and then punted the simple kick over the bar.

Stu Mackay also got on the scoreboard three minutes later, again making Ruddick's life easy, and Ellwood closed the proceeding in injury time with Reading's tail tucked firmly between their legs.

ic Berkshire ~ Maidenhead