ABERGELE turned in an improved performance before eventually falling to a narrow six-run home loss at the hands of Hawarden Park.

The North Wales Cricket League Division One side restricted their opponents to 140-8 from their allotted 50 overs in the middle, with David Moulson claiming the wickets of Jamie MacDonald (1), Chris Hinton (9) and Campbell Marr (10) on his way to impressive figures of 3-14 from a 12-over spell.

Lewis Tolond was another to make a considerable impact with the ball by removing top scorer David Hughes (34) and skipper Adam Cross (5) to end the day on 2-28, and the duo of Wasim Ali and Owen Lyam claiming a scalp apiece.

A standout knock from Gele captain Karl Higgins from the opening position gave them a good platform from which to build, but the all-rounded was caught and bowled by Hughes on 41 at a pivotal stage of their run chase.

This was followed by a middle order collapse that saw no batsman impact the score board in a positive way, and although Ali tried to make a fight of things late on it was not enough as the hosts were all out for 134 in reply.

The bowling tandem of Ian Martin and Hughes proved to be the catalyst behind the visitors’ success, each helping themselves to four wickets each at the combined expense of 56 runs.

Abergele remain second from bottom in the standings ahead of their trip to Ruthin on Saturday.