A FORMER Worcestershire cricketer will face trial after denying an affray charge.

Joe Clarke appeared before magistrates on Thursday charged with a single count of affray.

This is in relation to an incident in Wales last year.

Clarke, 25, appeared alongside Oliver James Clarke, aged 30, Richard Xavier Clarke, aged 20, and Robert Clarke, aged 26, all of Underhill Farm, Trefonen, plus Tim Parker, aged 25, of Tennyson Avenue, Clevedon, North Somerset, at Welshpool Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, June 15.

All five were charged with affray in connection with a single alleged incident in Four Crosses in Montgomeryshire on July 5, 2020.

The men indicated not guilty pleas at an initial hearing at Welshpool Magistrates Court.

The defendants were granted unconditional bail prior to the direction hearing, which is scheduled to be heard in Mold Crown Court on July 16.

Clarke, who left New Road to play for Nottinghamshire in 2018, will continue to play while the proceedings go ahead.

A Nottinghamshire CCC spokesman said: "The club is aware of the situation involving Joe Clarke and will await the outcome of those proceedings in due course."

Clarke, considered one of the most talented English players to have not yet played for the national side, was fined and banned by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2019 for bringing the game into disrepute.

This was following the rape trial of his former Worcestershire team-mate Alex Hepburn, in which Whatsapp messages between the two, as well as then Worcestershire batsman Tom Kohler-Cadmore, were shown in court.

Neither Clarke or Kohler-Cadmore were charged with or found guilty of any criminality around the case.

They were however informed by the ECB that they would not be considered for international selection for either England or the England Lions for a set period of time.

Clarke was said to have been close to an England call-up this season, starting the T20 Blast competition in fine form.

But with England already under fire for historic social media posts from players including Sussex's Ollie Robinson, the selectors are understood to be carefully considering the image of the team moving forward.