Saturday 11th Novememer 2006

London League 2 South 

Thanet Wanderers 17 Maidstone  22

Maidstone bounced back on Saturday in fine style scoring 4 stunning tries aginst second placed Thanet Wanderers to record their 5th win of the season.
Playing with a strong wind behind them in the first half they knew they had to get  points on the board early on.In fact it was the hosts who got the first touch down,but that did not deter Maidstone who settled down to establish territory aided by good kicking by fly Half Craig Whitehead.After winning good ball from the scrum Whitehead found Full back Arnold in the line who straightened and had the ever aware Jamie Smith taking the pass who then cut inside, wrong footing the defence and with fellow centre Scott Mitchell at his shoulder who was able to take the scoring pass at the posts.By now all play was with Maidstone in scrum and line out in spite of stong wind.After one such scrum Mitchell again made very good ground swerving round several ‘wanderers’ and timed his pass perfectly for Mark Ryan to go over in the corner.
With the half time score at only 12-5 and the wind now in their faces they knew they had a battle in front of themselves.Skipper Arnold followed up and regained his own clearance kick to set up a loose ruck.This was won by the battling Maidstone forwards again and with perfect service from scrum half Dave Heads Whitehead unleashed his backs who passed in text book fashion to young wing Harry Stockford,who made enough ground to dive over in at the corner.If this was not enough,Heads made a great break from the back of the scrum to find first Jamie Smith who had Ryan coming from his opposite wing to power through to find Stockford outside who went over again.
This stunned the vociferous one eyed crowd,but it did finally make the home side react and in doing so scored 2 tries of the own to set up a tense final 10 minutes.Their cause was not helped by the yellow carding of their prop Green for a dangerous high and late tackle on Mitchell.The latter was ‘shaken but not stirred’.In spite of being reduced to 14 men they continued to attack the Maidstone line,but the referee blew up much to the joy and relief of the Maidstone team and the many travelling supporters.
This was a very good victory and leaves them in a solid position mid table.
With a week off next week they play bottom club Lewis at the mote on Novemeber 25th.

Scorers
Tries Harry Stockford (2),Mark Ryan, Scott Mitchell
Conversion CraigWhitehead

Team:Martin Arnold(capt), Harry Stockford, Jamie Smith,Scott Mitchell,Mark Ryan Craig Whitehead, Dave Heads, Scott Mcilroy,  Tom Rogers, Simon Hollister,
Steve Matthews,Andy Bacon, Ben Court, Alex Smith(Sargent),Fin Davis