Kimberley amassed a huge total of 299-5, Jack Nightingale and Ximus Du Ploy both hitting 80 with Papplewick's reply only reaching 239-9, Ben Trevor-Jones with 62, Harry Ratcliffe 61, Eamonn Vines 39 and George Scottorn 4-32 off nine

Papplewick captain Trevor-Jones said: “Kimberley played well well.

“They are generally a good team. But when they are at home on a good batting wicket and have the opportunity to put together a strong score like they did, they're always going to be very hard to beat.

“Equally when they're bowling second in those conditions they are good at putting on pressure and making those big totals feel even bigger. They did that really well on Saturday.

“All day we were just not at our best – maybe six out of 10? Against a team like Kimberley you're just never going to beat them at that level.

“We have beaten them a couple of times in recent years. But we had good days and when the game was in the balance found a way to get ourselves on top.”

He added: “On Saturday we dropped a couple of key catches. They were tricky ones, but if they stick and you then get a few wickets you get a bit of momentum and it could have been a very different day.

“With the bat we just didn't have that one partnership to put us in the hunt really.

“We started well and were probably similar to where Kimberley were. But in the middle overs they had two really good spinners who put the brakes on us and took a couple of wickets and it was hard to recover from there.”

Now Papplewick welcome champions Cavaliers & Carrington on Saturday before a trip to Radcliffe-on-Trent on Bank Holiday Monday.

“It is probably a blessing and a curse to have to come up against another top side in Cavaliers so quickly,” he said.

“But it does give us a chance to bounce back and prove to ourselves we are a team that can threaten the league.

“It is funny then to play Radcliffe again so soon – and we play them on Thursday in a T20 too so we're seeing a lot of them.

“If we could take eight points from each fixture this weekend then that Kimberley game just looks like a blemish.

“But if we don't roll that into a couple of good results this weekend then all of a sudden we are not in a great position – so it is a big weekend coming up.”

Papplewick & Linby unbeaten record ended at rivals Kimberley