Sat 13 Sep 2025
East London 19 v 26 Maldon 13.09.25
Maldon made the long journey to deepest London to play East London, a team that Maldon had not defeated for a number of years. The weather was beautiful, sunny, warm, little breeze & only the chance of a light shower. Both teams were warming up when the referee phoned to say that she was stuck in traffic & would not be there on time. So, the 2 coaches & captains decided that a replacement was needed, at least for the start of the game. The criteria was that the replacement needed to be good looking, suave, sophisticated, superbly athletic, articulate, related to at least one Maldon player & (if possible) able to referee. Amazingly, they found such a person eating his lunch in the car park. East London kindly provided some kit, new socks, new shorts & new shirt turned inside out & the start time of 3pm was manageable.
Just as the referee was about to go outside to speak to the teams, the ‘light shower’ forecast appeared. However, it was actually a 10 minute monsoon forcing players to run for cover into the clubhouse. When the referee eventually ventured outside, parts of the pitch were under water, so he considered watching from the clubhouse rather than running around the mud bath of a field.
The game started & East London started strongly, with good carrying & close support. Maldon tackled well & the game was fairly even. The first scrum saw East London dominate, forcing a penalty, which allowed them to attack with power &, with more close support, East London crossed the line for the first score, 7-0.
Maldon chased the kick off & kept up the strong defence, resulting in a turnover, giving them possession. A penalty for a deliberate knock-on brought more territory & Maldon were confident in attack. Zak Knight crossed the try line, but was held up by the defence. With good field position, inside the East London 22, Maldon moved the ball to captain Lewis Nichols, who made a break & offloaded to fellow centre Brad White to score near the posts, converted by Joshua Chadwick, 7-7.
At this point the real referee appeared & the replacement referee was cheered from the field for his amazing performance.
Straight from the kick off Ben Marshall burst through tackles, making valuable metres before releasing Zak Knight, with 40m to the try line. Looking like a slow-motion action-replay of a rugby player gasping for breath at every step, Zak handed off the last defender to reach the try line, 7-12 to Maldon.
Maldon were so happy with this try that they completely switched off, forgot to catch the kick-off, didn’t bother to tackle & allowed East London to score under the posts, 14-12!!
Things went from bad to worse when East London had a line-out near the Maldon 22. East London caught the ball & started to drive. They never stopped driving until they reached the try line, scoring again to take a lead of 19-12.
This was the half-time score &, whilst East London had not played badly, Maldon had gifted them 2 scores, making the 2nd half more of a challenge than it needed to be.
In the 2nd half Maldon played with a bit more determination, but wasted a couple of opportunities to move the ball to space, choosing the wrong option. East London continued to compete fiercely, but were warned about the height of their tackles. From a scrum near the East London try line, the backs were able to release Lewis Nichols to crash over for a converted try, 19-19.
Another high tackle & East London saw yellow which gave Maldon the chance to capitalise on the superior numbers, but Maldon didn’t take the opportunities in this period of 10 minutes (which included another ‘light shower’ downpour).
Maldon kept up their dominance & the ball was moved wide to winger Sam Johnson. Sam ran strongly, then kicked the ball over the last defender. At this point the other 14 players, subs, coaches & travelling spectators groaned “Oh no, SJ’s kicked it off the pitch again”. But, no, SJ had produced the perfect kick, which he chased & grounded for an excellent individual converted try, 19-26 to Maldon.
East London responded with some more high tackles & their skipper received a yellow card. However, East London kept attacking & Maldon kept defending. In their defensive exploits, prop Andy Weller received a yellow card, giving both teams 14 men each to finish the game. The last few minutes were played inches from the Maldon try line & as East London were held up, over the try line, the final whistle blew.
This was a good victory for Maldon, beating a determined East London team, & gaining a try bonus point too, 19-26.
Man of the match - Charlie Frost, a brilliant all round performance in his first 1st team game for a long while.
Next league game - Upminster at home, 04.10.25.
