Sat 6 Dec 2025
Maldon travelled to Stanford-Le-Hope, to play their old rivals for the first time in 2 seasons. Stanford-Le-Hope had lost one more game than Maldon this season, & would be keen to perform well against Maldon. The pre-match weather included quite a bit of rain, but, for the game the rain stayed away. There was, however, a strong cross wind for both teams to contend with.
Maldon started strongly, with some forceful carries in attack & some strong tackles in defence. Stanford-Le-Hope looked to keep the ball with their big forwards & wanted to run into Maldon around the ruck area. Maldon used the conditions well & moved down the pitch, getting close to the try-line, for Demetri Sofocleous to score the first points of the day, 0-5.
Maldon took the kick-off well & immediately attacked, good handling & support running produced the opportunity to get close to the try-line again. This time the ball was moved out to space & winger Ben Harbutt dummied his way over, 0-10.
Stanford-Le-Hope came back with some determination, getting over the gain line & being rewarded with a couple of penalties, one of which they kicked, 3-10.
Stanford-Le-Hope continued to enjoy a good spell, with their forwards moving forwards after some good rucking, which produced space for their winger to cross the line, 8-10.
This prompted Maldon to raise their game again, with better handling, moving the ball wider, away from the opposition forwards. The Maldon backs linked well to allow centre Tom Britton to find a gap, kick through & collect his own kick to score a try, 8-15. Tom followed this up, fairly quickly with another try, after good work by forwards & backs, moving the ball well & going through phases patiently. Half-time score 8-20.
The second half started with Maldon trying to run the ball out of defence, which caused them problems, as turnovers & knock-ons gave Stanford-Le-Hope some opportunities. When Maldon started to kick, using the wind, they played more effectively. From a scrum near the Stanford-Le-Hope 22m line, a planned move saw winger Sam Moon cross the line, converted by Joshua Chadwick, 8-27.
If Maldon thought that Stanford-Le-Hope were finished they were mistaken. At this point Stanford-Le-Hope had their best period of the game. In the space of 10 minutes Stanford-Le-Hope scored 2 well taken tries & completely dominated the scrums, 18-27
Maldon regrouped under the posts & a team talk urged standards to improve. This happened, as Maldon resumed their dominance, kicking better, handling better & preventing Stanford-Le-Hope from having possession to attack. Maldon’s dominance was helped by a yellow card to Stanford-Le-Hope, which gave the room for Tom Britton to score his hat-trick, 18-32.
The line-outs were much improved this week & from a line-out, good passing saw Jamie Farrup cross the line, 18-37. Next, a poor clearance by Stanford-Le-Hope was collected by Sam Moon who drew in two defenders and fed to full-back Joshua Chadwick, who scored, 18-42. Not content with a hat-trick, Tom Britton crossed again for his 4th try, converted by Sam Langston, 18-49, with only a couple of minutes left. From the kick-off, the ball was fed to Jim Roblin, who burst through a gap, used his pace to outrun a tired defence, drawing the full-back. Jim remembered what Olly Lyons would do in such situations & executed a chip over the full-back’s head, dribbled on &, without the hint of a knock-on, touched down for a superb individual try, 18-54. Not wanting to stop scoring, Maldon took advantage of Stanford-Le-Hope’s exhaustion & running into lots of space, Alfie Summers cross field kick to Sam Langston meant one more try, converted by Alfie Summers, for a final score of 18-61.
Scoring 11 tries was an excellent performance & a big win like this will give the team confidence before the final 2 games before Christmas.
Man of the match - Tom Britton
Next league fixture is at home against Campion on 13.12, on a VP’s day
