ABERGELE’s latest North Wales Cricket League Group C fixture saw them beaten by three wickets at Halkyn.

Gele were unable to recover from a lacklustre batting display during the defeat, which is their third in four games since the campaign formally began.

The visitors made a poor start to their time in the middle when Ben Roberts ousted the dangerous duo of David Williams (0) and wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Garnett (7), before Gareth Thomas took over proceedings with the ball to decimating the middle order.

Thomas was responsible for the wickets of Wasim Ali (4), Kyle Walker (14) and Luke Sellars (14) on his way to figures of 3-23 from an eight-over spell.

Opener David Moulson provided some resistance with a knock of 25 before he was eventually set back to the pavilion at the hands of Ben Wilbraham, who also added Ed Rooney (12), Chetan Upadhyaya (0) and Karl Higgins (5) to finish the day on 4-33.

This left Gele all out on 128 from 37.5 overs, but they made a good start to their run chase as Moulson dismissed Ben Roberts and Alex North for 12 and a duck respectively.

Wicketkeeper Carl Jutson was run out by Garnett after making just four, and Moulson managed to take his final figures to 4-21 with the scalps of Thomas (12) and Nathan Lavender (12).

Marcello Carrino was a far sterner presence to remove from the crease, with the opening batsman making 35 from 70 deliveries before he was caught off a Upadhyaya, and a double-figure score from Tim Davies (19) also played a significant part in the home side reaching their required target with three and a half overs to spare.

Abergele will be hoping for better luck when they next take the field at Carmel and District on Saturday.