Farnham won 38-22 at home to Maidenhead in Regional One South Central on Saturday.

Farnham welcomed Maidenhead on a cold and wet afternoon. Farnham handed a debut to Zac Tinkler at full-back while captain Toby Salmon celebrated his 200th first-team appearance. The visitors kicked off with Farnham opting to play with the conditions in the first half.

An early scrum penalty allowed the visitors to get their first points on the board with a penalty to go 3-0 up.

However, Farnham came back strongly and won a penalty which they decided to kick to the corner. The maul was well set and although it was stopped short, the ball was well recycled. Farnham drew in the Maidenhead defence which allowed the ball to be moved wide and Joey Wood finished off well for the first try.

Considering the conditions, Farnham were still managing to move the ball well and Ollie Brown spotted the narrow Maidenhead defence and found Salmon, who stepped inside to break the line before offloading to a rampaging Oscar Henderson before he was brought down just inside the 22. The ball was recycled with Brown finding Salmon again who just managed to get his pass away to put in Tinkler for a debut try.

Minutes later Maidenhead’s outside centre broke through the line before linking up with his fellow backs for the left winger to finish off in the corner.

Farnham had to make the conditions count and kicked to the corner again to set up a driving maul. The attack was patient and Greg Franzel was on hand to power over for Farnham’s third try.

The hosts ended the first half with a commanding 21-8 lead.

Farnham played into the wind in the second half and had to be sharp with their kicking and discipline. They also had to tighten their attack slightly with the forward carriers of Henderson, Sam Voight, Shawa Rai and Jonny Vincent getting through a lot of work. However, it paid off when Adam Pickett managed to ride two tackles and dot down for the bonus point try.

Maidenhead came back and used the wind to give them good field position. The visitors found space on the left-hand side and dived over for a converted try to make the score 26-15 with 17 minutes to go.

Farnham kept the game compact with Harry West managing the match well. Marco Azevedo and Jack Buxton came on into the pack with Ben Stevens coming on in the backline.

The hosts created space for Max Williams to dive over for a converted try to make it 33-15 and open up some breathing room.

Farnham kept attacking well and a penalty was kicked to the corner. Harrison Horner was stopped just short but Vincent was on hand to power over for the sixth try to make it 38-15.

Maidenhead did finish the match on a high with a try just before full-time, however it was too late and the game finished 38-22 to Farnham.

The hosts secured the maximum five points in really testing conditions, with the defence standing strong for the majority of the game and the attack well managed throughout.

Farnham move up to sixth in the league and will travel to fourth-placed Old Alleynians on Saturday.

By Toby Salmon