Papplewick are hit by another Covid postponement

Ben Trevor-Jones - difficult decision to postpone again.

But they did manage to put out a weakened side at Chesterfield on Sunday and win through to the next round of the Derbyshire Premier Cup.

On Saturday's postponed trip to Plumtree, captain Ben Trevor-Jones said: “We had a player who tested positive during the week and he was also in contact with another of our players during the week, who then had to self-isolate.

“So we had two players out for 10 days.

“The cases seem to have spread from the previous weekend's Premier League v Trent Bridge XI game.

“Four of the six games scheduled for Saturday ended up being rescheduled.

“It was a very difficult decision. These circumstances are just so new and no one really knows what the right or wrong thing is to do.

“No one knows at what stage people have to self-isolate or, if you test negative, are you okay to carry on. There is a lot of confusion around it.

“Our chairman spoke to the Plumtree chairman and they decided the best thing was to just reschedule the game. It was a mutual agreement.”

However, Papplewick got back to action on Sunday where they made 162-6 from their 40 overs, Ben Bhabra with 50 and Harry Ratcliffe with 38, Ahmad Zazai taking 3-19.

In reply, Chesterfield were bowled out for 127, Ben Slater making 34 and Marcus Hayes 25, Freddie McCann the bowling hero with 5-35.

“We managed to get the game on on Sunday, having spoken to Chesterfield,” said Trevor-Jones.

“They were comfortable after we took out all our players who could have been possibly involved during the week and were happy to carry on.

“We had four players out of our normal starting XI but we still got the result which was extremely pleasing.”

This weekend sees a home clash with Wollaton and Trevor-Jones said: “They are another team with a couple of very key players, particularly on the bowling front.

“We will have one or two players out as well. But we do have others in the squad who we think are good enough to play in the first team and this provides a good opportunity for a couple of guys who played really well on Sunday to come in and build on that.

“The responsibility across the batting and bowling has been quite equally shared throughout this season, so hopefully a couple stand up again on Saturday and we get the result we are looking for.”