Thetford maintained their fine start to the season when they beat Maldon 56-10 in the Senior Vase to avenge two previous defeats at the hands of the Essex side in the same competition.

The hosts went ahead when a Maldon kick was fielded by the outstanding Jason Post who returned with interest for Will Martin to gather and score.

Maldon were given the opportunity to register some points when awarded a penalty at the breakdown and fly-half Bradley White duly registered three points.

Thetford were given the same opportunity shortly after but third generation Thetford debutant Josh Sharp took it quickly and fed captain Jasper Spencer who offloaded to Ryan Gardiner who carried two defenders over the line to score his first of three on the day.

After a driving maul was illegally halted, reducing Maldon to 14, captain Spencer opted to kick for the corner and another big maul was halted. Thetford didn’t stop there however and quick handling by the backline gave Gardiner the time and space to score his second. He then completed his first half hat-trick when he was on the end of a perfectly-weighted crossfield kick from Martin.

Malik Lock extended the lead further when a loose ball was scooped up by Martin and passed to Josh Clark who offloaded to another impressive debutant Zak Chine-Lacey who carried up to the 22 metre line and Malik showed his pace to run the rest of the way.

Maldon captain Brendan Bignell crashed over to reduce the arrears but before half-time Martin gathered to score again for Thetford.

The next try was a team affair with Dan Cotton stealing the ball in a Maldon line-out and opening up a gap for Martin to surge through and pass to Josh Clark to run it in from his own 22.

The final act saw Martin taking advantage of the tiring Maldon defence to score under the posts before knocking over his eighth conversion. The Indigo Waste Services man-of-the-match was Josh Clark.

The second team captained by Adam Brown ran out 38-19 winners over Norwich Union II to advance in the Norfolk Bowl.

Thetford return to league action at struggling Lowestoft & Yarmouth on Saturday.