BANGOR suffered another defeat in their North Wales Cricket League Premier Division title defence after falling to a 48-run reverse at Brymbo.

The defending champions were unable to capitalise on a scintillating bowling display from Gareth Edwards and fell 40 points behind Menai Bridge as a result of their fourth loss in ten league contests.

Robbie Marshall’s side know there is now no more room for error as they look to get their season back on track at home to in-form Llandudno on Saturday.

Edwards wasted no time in making his presence felt with the new ball by taking out wicketkeeper Greg King for 24, and the same bowler was on hand to despatch Gareth Pugh (42) and skipper James Claybrook (40) despite fierce resistance from the pair.

The seamer continued his relentless spell with the scalps of Mohamed Jayman (4), Gareth Boys (8) and Daniel Parry (3) in quick succession, and Edwards also disposed of talented youngster Connor Davies for an impressive 77 on his way to figures of 7-47 from an outstanding 11-over spell.

Nadeem Rehman also helped himself to a pair of lower order wickets at the expense of 38 runs, which left the home side all out for 209 with two balls remaining of their allotted 50 overs.

The visiting run chase began horribly as Sion Evans and David Winter were both ousted by Ben Mason for a duck and three respectively, while Matty Haswell was caught off a Davies strike after contributing a promising 27.

Home bowler Boys then took over proceedings with a fantastic spell which proved to be fatal to the away side’s chances of success, claiming the wickets of top scorer Rehman (38), Marshall (18), Jonny Wells (0) and Idress Ijaz (18) to finish his 12 overs on 4-20.

This was a blow that Bangor could not recover from, and despite double-figure scores from Edwards (18) and Matt Kelly (13) it was not enough to get them over the line as they managed just 161 in reply.