Bedfordshire suffer agonising run out drama

Bedfordshire saved their best display of the season for their last game but still ended up losing.
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Set a target of 344 by Lincolnshire in the Unicorns Championship match at Ampthill, they were seven runs short when last man Colin Griggs was run out by a direct hit attempting to scramble the run that would have got Martin Weightman on strike.

It had been Weightman who had taken Bedfordshire to the brink of victory with a brilliant unbeaten 83.

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The hosts fought back magnificently after being totally outplayed in the first innings.

Lincolnshire rattled up 353-6 with Singh Bansai and Conrad Louth both hitting centuries.

Beds were left with a tricky few minutes to bat at the end of the first day during which time they lost opener Charlie Thurston and despite resolute batting from nightwatchman Colin Griggs who survived for 117 minutes for 24, things didn’t improve on the second morning.

Sam Johnson made 28 but Weightman was the only other batsman to get going. He top-scored with 40 as Bedfordshire were dismissed for a paltry 184.

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Lincolnshire decided against enforcing the follow on and it was then that the Bedfordshire comeback began. Weightman, very much the man of the match, broke the back of the Lincolnshire innings, taking 4-40, and then skipper Andy Reynoldson’s superb spell of 5-32 saw the visitors dismissed for 174.

Thurston and Luke Thomas took their opening stand to 51 on the final day before Thomas was out for 31 and then Thurston and Johnson added 91.

Thurston went for 67 and although George Thurstance was out first ball, there was another good partnership between Johnson (60) and Reynoldson (29) which saw Bedfordshire to 202, at which score both were out.

Enter Weightman, but Bedfordshire’s hopes seemed to have disappeared when the ninth wicket went down with 32 runs still required.

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Griggs again defended stubbornly while Weightman tore into Adam Shepherd, smashing him for two fours and one huge six.

It all ended though when Powell’s shy beat Griggs’s desperate dive. Had the throw missed, four overthrows would have resulted because no-one was backing up.