Papplewick ready for potential title showdown with Kimberley

Australian opener Brent Williams was the star of the show with a swashbuckling 155 not out.

Now second-placed Papplewick welcome a Kimberley side who are in fourth but with three games in hand that could see them overtake them.

“Regardless of the game it is just exciting to be in this position,” said captain Ben Trevor-Jones.

“If you had said to me at the start of the season that in round 15 we would be playing Kimberley to potentially go close to the top with a few rounds to go I would have snapped your hand off.

“The timing is quite nice as we should have most guys available this weekend. It is an absolutely key game and will be a really good test for us.

“They beat us two weeks ago and we need to find a way to get one back on them.”

Papplewick ran up 276-3 at Caythorpe with Williams' innings backed by 48 from Louis Bhabra and 40 from Trevor-Jones.

Caythorpe fought hard and Ben Martindale made 60 not out, aided by James Oldham (53) and Flynn Purnell (24), but they fell short on 225-8.

“The toss was always going to be key as it looked a good batting wicket, quite dry,” said Trevor-Jones.

“We were lucky enough to win it and Brent did the rest.

“He was slightly more patient than what I'd seen before, then chose the right moment to put some pressure back on the bowlers.

“From there he continued to do so up until 70 or 80 and then went into cruise control, knocked it round and played a very mature innings.

“I think he could recognise it was a good wicket and we needed quite a few - which it turned out we did as they got really close to at least getting the two bonus points.”

He added: “Louis played an absolutely outstanding knock to really take us from 240-250 to 270.

“I was very appreciative of Brent's innings as he scores quite quickly and I tend not to do so. It was a nice combination with the two of us.

“I also recognised they had a couple of key spinners who bowled in the middle overs. So I thought it was important to keep wickets in hand.”

Papplewick last week beat Denby by 98 runs to move into the Derbyshire Premier Cup semi-finals.

Trevor-Jones (60), Louis Bhabra (52), Williams (48) and Harry Ratcliffe (40) saw Papplewick to 235-3 before Daniel Blatherwick's 5-44 helped them bowl out the visitors for 137.

They now face Sandiacre or Spondon on Sunday, 8th August.