BURY Broncos dropped down to seventh place in Division Two of the North West Men's League after suffering their third defeat in four games at Wigan St Judes A.

The hosts ran out 48-22 winners, doing the double over the Broncos after beating them 24-6 at their Philips High School base in Whitefield in the second game of the season.

The latest encounter was a close-fought match until the final 15 minutes, when the Broncos' resolve faded.

It was nip and tuck in the first half, as both teams scored two tries but Judes took a narrow advantage into the break as they kicked both their conversions while Bury were only successful with one.

Kicking had a part to play in both the Broncos' tries, however, with chip kicks opening up the Wigan defence.

Brad Cave dropped on his own grubber kick under the sticks to open the scoring while and the visitors' second try came after Richard West collected his own chip before offloading to Warren Bluer to score.

Judes scored two tries in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but Bury responded well as Cave completed a breakaway score to make it 16-24.

The next score looked to be a real killer for the Broncos as the Judes centre somehow managed to catch the ball despite it bouncing off his back and head while running forward at pace, then put in a support runner to widen their lead again.

Bury replied with a fantastic try of their own, which Liam Sixsmith finished wide on the left, but with time against them the Broncos had no option but to take risks to try to save the game and the home side punished them with three late scores.