Blues on way with Garside double

BEDFORD Blues reclaimed local bragging rights as Will Maisey’s late penalty edged proceedings at Goldington Road.

Tied at 35-35 heading into the final minute, Maisey nailed a kick from the 10m line before Mike Rayer’s side stood firm in defence at the death as Ampthill were put into touch on a driving maul.

Both sides thought they’d won it as the score line swung back and forth 11 different times – across the two meetings in preseason, this fixture produced 22 tries.

Ampthill struck first through full-back Joe Luca-Smith before the effervescent Jake Garside – man of the match on his Blues debut – got his first with a neat burst from 50m.

Blues took the lead two minutes before the break through Emmanuel Iyogun but Ampthill were level at half-time when countering and sending Luca-Smith under the posts again.

Again both sides continued to trade tries as Ampthill hooker Billy Harding cancelled out Garside’s second, before Pat Tapley scored a mere 30 seconds after coming on as Blues went back infront.

This time Carl Burgess was the man to level the scores before the visitors went in front for the first time in the second half through the impressive Paddy Ryan.

A penalty try forced by a dominant scrum push from Bedford set up the dramatic finale and Maisey obliged by sending a pinpoint penalty kick into the Bedford faithful watching on.

He said: “It’s not very often you see a penalty try in pre-season, but it was important because it gave us the victory. We missed a lot of opportunities but hopefully we can use the positives to push us on next season.”

Ampthill kick off the 2021/22 Championship season when travelling to Nottingham on Friday night, while Bedford have a bye and will instead face Saracens Storm in their final pre-season fixture.