Ampthill stay in second spot while Bedford go down to heavy defeat

A rain affected game saw several stoppages but Ampthill made 265-9 off 46 overs, Nick Barden top scoring with 85 and Gavin Howson 42.

Broxbourne never got close and were bowled out for 194, Ben Slawinski taking 4-36 and Will Sneath 2-29.

The Saturday IIs suffered a surprise away defeat to relegation threatened St Albans IIs.

The home side were asked to bat first and again rain interruptions restricted them to 183-8 off 48 overs, Ollie Evans taking 2-29.

After a steady start in the reply there followed a collapse to 97-9 with skipper Phil Clark making 46.

More rain interruptions meant 164 was the new target and Potter and Evans got the score to 141 before the last wicket fell.

The IIIs lost to Oakley by 50 runs after reaching 192-7 off their 45 overs, Rob McLeod with 2-28.

Sam Craig (27) and Michael Wiles (26) were the main contributions in Ampthill’s 142 all out.

The IVs were beaten by Bedford IIs after being bowled out for 109, Luke Presswell top scoring with 32, but Bedford secured victory by five wickets, James Haxell the pick of the bowlers with 2-22.

There was no Beds League games for Ampthill on Sunday although Potton returned to the top of the table with an away victory.

Bedford’s Saturday first XI succumbed to a 10-wicket defeat at title-chasing Steppingley as they collapsed to 102 all out, with their opponents reaching 106-0.

The II fared much better with a comfortable five wicket victory at Ampthill.

Naveen Chandra (4-29) and 3-15 from Umar Mughal saw Ampthill out for 109.

The chase wasn’t all plain sailing, but there were enough contributions to see the side to the top of Division Three, reaching 110-5.

Sharnbrook conceded against the Sunday 1st XI, as the only game saw the IIs take on Cople at The Bury.

Despite restricting Cople to 175-7 thanks to two wickets for Hritik Sikand, Shabas Karukunnath and Syed Bukhari , BCC collapsed from 147-5 to 156 all out as Bukhari and Shaun Summers hit 32 apiece, falling short by 19 runs.

Lidlington clung on to draw with Thurleigh at the weekend.

Openers Rob Dent (42) and Alastair Bailey (86) set Thurleigh on their way to 290-6, despite Matt Nichol taking 3-31 and Raja Shahid claiming 1-35.

In reply Lidlington’s Hamayun Shahid (58), Nadeem Ahmed (35) and David Whitfield (20) made starts, but Thurleigh’s Vijay Kumar Guru (4-43) and Alex King (2-36) saw the middle order collapse, leaving last pair of Ollie Bland and Ashley White to see out the final over at 153-9.

last over in near darkness and hold onto a loosing draw,