This afternoon’s derby between Ampthill and Bedford Blues may have been a dead rubber on paper, but the Bedfordshire bragging rights were on the line at Olney Field with the visitors snatching victory at the death.
This fixture has provided an avalanche of points in recent years, but eighty minutes of tough rugby didn’t produce the free flowing game that the Blues pride themselves on, with a late Seán French try saving blue blushes and giving Mike Rayer’s side consecutive cup victories.
In a repeat of last week’s clash against Caldy, Bedford Blues found themselves 12-0 down as Ampthill took the lead after ten minutes thanks to a messy try from Tom Bacon before Charlie Bracken doubled the try count after twenty five minutes.
Any throws into Ampthill territory were snuffed out for the Blues who were beginning to get frustrated before Joey Conway scored his second try in as many games on the stroke of half-time to give the visitors a boost heading into the sheds.
French strikes again
An easy try from Oli Morris for Ampthill opened up the 12-point gap once again very early in the second half but they were to be the last points the home team would score as Bedford Blues began to find another gear to track them down.
For the last half an hour, the indiscipline began to creep in to Ampthill’s game and what was a consistent stream of penalties against them resulted in a sin-binning for Zac Nearchou which opened the door for the Blues to steal victory.
Pressure told on 64 minutes as Joe Howard bundled over to reduce the deficit to five points and despite Ampthill holding on to that lead for ten minutes, they were struck by a sense of déjà vu from Bedford’s rapid Irishman.
A late Seán French try secured victory for Bedford here in April and once again, he was the man to break Ampthill hearts as he collected a pass on the right wing, dodged a couple of tackles and dived over to level the scores, before Louis Grimoldby added the extras.
The former Ampthill man closed the game with a late penalty, giving Bedford Blues a 24-19 win and back-to-back victories ahead of a cup-closing encounter at Goldington Road next Saturday against Leicester Tigers.
Ampthill sit bottom of Pool B on two points with a trip to Sale Sharks to come next Friday night.
