I’VE got to congratulate our county cousins Maidenhead who, in beating my boys Reading last Saturday, moved to within one win of the South West One East title.

It was not all one-way, however, as our forwards secured the ball well and Maidenhead had their share of defending to do, especially in the second half.

It’s such a shame we are going down as the boys are playing a lot better now but, of course, it’s all too late and both they and the coaches will just have to buckle down when training begins again and work twice as hard to get us back up next season.

We have reacted quickly and appointed Andy Arter as Director of Rugby and he will also be in charge of the Rugby Academy starting in September this year, which will help not only Reading RFC but all of the clubs in Berkshire going forward, providing a Sport BT qualification for 16 to 18 year olds in the county.

Amongst Andy’s responsibilities he will also be in charge of the new coach when he’s appointed and he has been involved in the interviews we have been doing. That should bring some positive changes for the start of new season.

Well done to Reading Abbey – themselves involved in the dogfight – who came from behind to seal a key win at Grove which puts them third-bottom and above Windsor on points difference.

However, with their last two games against the top two – Maidenhead at home this Saturday and away to Newbury Blues – they’ve still got their work cut out, and having three Berkshire based teams propping up the league is a bit embarrassing. What’s going wrong?

Thankfully, Redingensians Rams are flying the flag for us and after beating Clifton, they should finish at least seventh in National Two South, although they have a tough trip to leaders Bishop Stortford this Saturday.

There was also a victory for Berkshire Shire Hall at Harwell – can they now become the first team to beat Littlemore this year?

Lastly, London Irish have now lost back-to-back games against Jersey and will be looking to shake off the disappointment of last Sunday’s British & Irish Cup defeat when they host Rotherham in the Greene King IPA Championship.