The tranquil setting of the North Herefordshire village of Kingsland was the scene of one of county cricket's most audacious limited-over muggings.

Minor Counties minnows Herefordshire stunned mighty Middlesex, four times winners, by dumping them out of the C & G Trophy with a three-wicket third round victory of the penultimate ball at Luctonians CC yesterday.

It was only the 11th time a lower-graded club has beaten first-class opponents in limited-overs cricket.

Few, if any, would have have been prepared to wager on Herefordshire topping Middlesex's 278-6 in 50 overs.

But the run chase reached a terrific climax when the hosts' eighth-wicket pair of Nick Davies and Aamir Farooque needed nine to win from the final over, bowled by off-spinner Paul Weekes.

Davies, whose unbeaten 39 came off 27 balls, stole a single off the first ball. Far-ooque stroked the second to the extra-cover boundary, followed by a single.

Davies then hit a two and a single off the fifth delivery, one of 20 no-balls conceded, clinched the astonishing win.

The bedrock of Herefordshire's innings was an opening stand of 129 - a club record in the competition - between Worcestershire cricket development officer Harshad Patel and 20-year-old Nathan Round.

Man of the match Patel, whose 68 came off 110 balls and contained 11 fours, set the tempo by hitting two fours in each of former England seamer and Middlesex skipper Gus Fraser's first two overs.

Round, who struck nine fours in his 66, followed suit. They punished Fraser and Jamie Hewitt for 14 boundaries in the first 10 overs as the total climbed to 79.

A mean 15 in a maximum 10 overs by England left-arm spinner Phil Tufnell braked Herefordshire's progress, the run rate steepled and 87 was still required from the final 10 overs, but Ismail Dawood (37) revived their hopes. Davies' heroics then completed the task.

Fraser had won the toss and elected to bat but his two openers, Andy Strauss and Ben Hutton, grandson of the famous Len, were back in the pavilion for 42.

But solid knocks from Robin Weston (47), Owais Shah (41) and Mick Roseberry (46) built the innings, while former Malvern College pupil David Nash, whose 58 was his highest limited-overs innings, and two sixes from Aaron Laraman advanced the final total to 278.

Former Worcestershire seamer Paul Thomas (2-50) was the pick of the home attack, while Andre Adams, the one-day New Zealand international, also took two wickets.