Marlow motoring but Windsor fall to third successive defeat
Slough pick up first win with victory over Rams
Marlow backed up their impressive opening day win over Wallingford with an eyecatching display away to Milton Keynes on Saturday.
Rory Greenslade-Jones’ side lost home and away to Milton Keynes last season and had 50 points put on them in March as their season ran out of steam in the final weeks.
However, the tables were well and truly turned on Saturday as Marlow ran out 47-19 winners away from home.
The result will have raised a few eyebrows around the Counties 1 Tribute Southern North division and certainly marks Marlow out as one of the sides to beat this season.
So far only Chinnor 3rds have bettered their results, with the early pace setters picking up a solid 29-0 win over Thatcham on Saturday, but Marlow will come into Saturday’s home game against 10th placed Reading Abbey full of confidence that they can maintain their impressive start to the season. Abbey will be looking to avoid a third straight league defeat this season after going down by just a single point, 19-18, at home to High Wycombe on Saturday.
■ While Marlow are up and motoring, the same cannot be said for Windsor under new coach Andy Symons as they fell to a third defeat on Saturday.
Their 87-5 opening day defeat at Hammersmith and Fulham says more about their opponents than it does about them. Hammersmith have crushed every side they’ve played this season, swatting aside Beaconsfield 87-0 in their second game before claiming a 64-20 away win at Cobham on Saturday. If early results are anything to go by this season, they’ll canter to the league title. Windsor, meanwhile, have been much improved in recent weeks, even if results have gone against them. They were edged out 29-28 away to London Cornish last week before going down 31-27 to Amersham & Chiltern in another close encounter on Saturday, picking up another couple of valuable points in the process. They may not have a win to their name in Regional 2 Thames, but Symons will feel it’s coming, and they’ll be confident of claiming a positive result when they finally play their first home game of the season against London Irish Wild Geese on Saturday.
■ In the Counties 2 Tribute, Berks, Bucks & Oxon South division, Slough picked up their first win of the campaign with an impressive 36-22 win over second placed Rams 3rds. The result lifts the Greenies to fourth ahead of Saturday’s home game with Reading 2nds.