In the clearest indication that St George’s have made an about-turn on their decision not to suspend Treadwell Gibbons in the wake of his antics at the 2013 Cup Match, the challengers have excluded the controversial all-rounder from 26 players invited to the first trial match on Saturday.

The club were in no position to confirm as such last night, but the Cleveland County player is the only one among the locally based players to have featured in the midsummer classic last year that is not selected.

Gibbons brought Cup Match to a halt for more than five minutes at Wellington Oval when he hotly disputed his dismissal on the second day, during which he made threatening gestures towards Somerset players while angrily waving his bat.

Despite widespread condemnation over their inaction, St George’s belatedly responded with a two-year suspended ban for Gibbons, which drew further criticism.

Since the incident, Gibbons has struggled to stay out of the limelight for the wrong reasons, having been sent off in the FA Cup Final in bizarre circumstances. A goalkeeper for Dandy Town, Gibbons was banned for five years by the Bermuda Football Association, with the incident and the 28-year-old’s penchant for attracting trouble on the biggest stage casting a damning light on St George’s for their leniency.

From last year’s Cup Match team, captain Oronde Bascome, Christian Burgess and Zeko Burgess are in school overseas. In the absence of Bascome, OJ Pitcher will captain one team and Rodney Trott the other.

St George’s have scheduled five trial matches in the build-up to Cup Match next month, with a second trial set for June 28 when a St George’s Select plays St David’s for the Turkey Barnes Cup. Both matches start at 10am.

Further trials will be held on July 5 in another interclub match, July 12 against Cleveland before their Eastern Counties Cup first-round challenge, and then the final trial on July 26.