MENAI Bridge suffered their first loss of the North Wales Cricket League Premier Division season after falling to a shock seven-wicket defeat to Gresford.

The title favourites were left rueing an uncharacteristically poor batting display which was the catalyst behind their downfall. 

Dion Holden’s men are now 24 points clear of Llandudno ahead of their crucial trip to champions Bangor on Saturday.

Things did not begin well for the home side as Luke Jones and Holden were both ousted by Chris Ellwood in the first over, after making four and a duck. 

Gethin Long (8) and Robbie Jones (9) also fell cheaply to Jack Bunkell and Ryan Williams not long after.

Wicketkeeper Jack Gower provided some resistance before he was well caught of the bowling of Ellwood on 34. 

Gresford bowler Daniel Williams then came on and tore through the lower order with the wickets of Ed Gadsby (24), Josh Massey (0), James Jones (1), Ashley Wood (4) and Dion Owen (10) on his way to figures of 5-19 from an eight-over spell.

Overseas player Patrick Glover made an unbeaten 19 late on as the home side were skittled for a season-low 122.

Wood tried to make a fight of things with the ball by securing the early scalps of Sam Thompson and Matthew Cree for 27 and seven. 

The same bowler also took out the stubborn Matty Thompson two short of his half century to finish with figures of 3-34 from his 12 overs.

That was as good as it got for the hosts, with Ellwood (18*) and Williams (14*) seeing out the remainder of the innings in comfortable fashion to condemn Bridge to their first loss of the campaign.

Bridge’s second unit also suffered a rare loss as they were downed by eight-wickets by Gresford to secure a notable double for the Wrexham area club.