DARREN Gough was run out off the last ball of the match at Colwyn Bay yesterday as he frantically tried to dash the single which would have brought Yorkshire Phoenix a thrilling tie with Glamorgan Dragons.

Amid wild excitement, last man Matthew Hoggard faced the game's final delivery from Australian paceman Michael Kasprowicz needing two runs for a Yorkshire win and a single to finish with the scores level.

Hoggard drilled the well pitched up delivery straight into the ground and back to the bowler who grabbed it at chest height and hurled down the stumps at the other end as Gough raced for the crease but finished just inches short.

So Yorkshire were all out for 237 in reply to Glamorgan's 238 for eight and the narrowest of defeats left them floundering at the bottom of the First Division table with all hope of avoiding relegation virtually gone.

Although Gough and Steven Kirby almost saw Yorkshire home with a brave ninth-wicket stand of 26 in four overs, it was Michael Lumb who made the last ditch fightback possible with a sparkling career-best one-day score of 92.

Coming in at 24 for two, Lumb was calmly in control while wickets fell around him, several to poor strokes, but all seemed lost when Richard Dawson was seventh out at 149 with a further 90 wanted from ten overs.

Lumb suddenly tore into spinners Robert Croft and Dean Cosker, hitting them for three enormous legside sixes, and Yorkshire were down to requiring 30 from just over four overs when he top edged a sweep at Cosker and skied the ball to Matthew Maynard at deep backward square leg.

Lumb left to a standing ovation, having thumped seven fours and three sixes off 94 balls to take Yorkshire to the brink of victory.

The left-arm Cosker, who last season returned his best National League figures of four for 17 against Yorkshire at Cardiff, ended with four for 37 which included 13 off his final over.

Gough's audacious 24 from 27 balls kept him in the thick of the action right up to the end on his first appearance for Yorkshire since retiring from Test cricket and it was his excellent bowling earlier on which had checked Glamorgan.

He dismissed opener Croft lbw for a dangerous 28 and later bowled Bradford-born Alex Wharf to give him very respectable figures of two for 30, and he was well supported by Hoggard who also bowled briskly on his return after being sidelined since the end of May with a cartilage injury.

Spinners Richard Dawson and Yuvraj Singh had identical figures of two for 48 and they also slowed down Glamorgan's charge after the wayward Kirby had given away 37 in four overs with the new ball.

Mike Powell top-scored for Glamorgan with 61 from 80 balls with seven fours before being beautifully taken tight against the rope by Lumb, and Australian Jimmy Maher hit 53 off 74 deliveries with eight boundaries, putting on 54 for the first wicket with Croft and 80 for the second in 15 overs with Powell.