Spirited effort by Stow RFC fails to prevent a Maidenhead win (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Spirited effort by Stow RFC fails to prevent a Maidenhead win

STOW-ON-THE-WOLD'S good efforts shown in the previous week's encounter could not be repeated on Saturday and they were deservedly beaten 41-7 by their high-riding league visitors from Maidenhead.

The first half proved rather one-sided with Maidenhead dominating from the start.

Stow were unable to win much ball and, when they did, they were guilty of kicking it away.

The hosts were behind within five minutes when, after several phases, Maidenhead scored in the corner.

Almost immediately from the re-start, the visitors scored another unconverted try.

With Stow unable to gain possession, they went further behind after losing their own scrum and were further penalised when conceding a concerted try from a quickly taken penalty.

Nonetheless, they briefly rallied, but still looked disorganised before losing the services of scrum-half Merick Royce with an ankle injury which did not help matters.

After this unfortunate incident, Maidenhead ran in two more tries, one converted, before the break to comfortably lead by 29 points.

After the turn-round, spirited Stow managed to rally in the second half, but the damage had already been done.

The forwards began to work together and, from a Rob Hudson break, Adam Beston outpaced the visitors' defence to score under the posts. Mathew Keyte added the conversion.

Although Stow should have scored again soon after, they made a bad decision when a clear overlap beckoned.

Instead, it was Maidenhead who came back to score two more tries, the latter being converted, for the easiest of victories.

Although the second half was a much more even affair, Stow, who anticipate the return of several first-choice from injury, clearly need to improve if they are to beat bottom-of-the table Salisbury this Saturday.