Kendal quick to pounce
Maidstone passed their biggest test of the season on a day when the top four did battle.
The London 2 South East leaders opened up an eight-point lead over Tunbridge Wells with Saturday’s success at The Mote, while third-placed Medway beat Sevenoaks in the other big game.
Conditions suited a territorial, forward-based approach but Maidstone looked to move the ball and could have had the match sewn up by half-time.
As it was, they were twice behind but always looked the more dangerous team.
Unlike recent games, Maidstone’s trait of starting well deserted them and there was an early yellow card for Jack Lamb.
Wells made their man advantage tell with a driving maul taking them over the line. Matt Spicer claimed the try with Ollie Allman converting.
Maidstone were still a man down when multiple infringements led to a penalty try, converted by Nick Childs to level the scores.
Paul Hathaway’s team upped their tempo but several breaks were halted by handling errors or a misplaced final pass.
The hosts made a bright start to the second half but an uncharacteristic mistake by Lenny Van der Velde led to a scrum and a series of phases from which Scott Sedgewick gave Wells a 12-7 lead.
Childs cut the gap with a penalty before Eddie Cranston became the second home player to be yellow-carded.
Hathaway started to make changes, with Nick Bunyan on for James Iles, Lucien Morosan moving to scrum-half and Sam Kendal replacing the injured Sam McPherson.
The impact was immediate as quick ball, after Van der Velde was stopped short of the line, saw Kendal score with almost his first touch for a 15-12 lead.
Wells had full-back Sam Newton sin-binned in the final quarter, with Childs converting the penalty.
Tunbridge Wells went for the winning score late on but Maidstone snuffed out their threat. Maidstone: Williams, Pankurst, Byford, J Iles, M Iles, Werahiko, Cranston, McPherson, Skelton, Morosan, Perigo, Van der Velde, Douglas, Childs. Replacements: Bunyan, Graves, Kendal.