SUFFOLK hand Minor Counties Championship debuts to two players in tomorrow’s opening three-day fixture away to Bedfordshire.

Bury St Edmunds batsman Scott Harvey and opening bowler Ben Stephens, who plays for Colchester & East Essex, are both included in the side for the match at Luton, start 11am.

Harvey, the 17-year-old who is a product of the Suffolk youth system, and Stephens both figured in Suffolk’s Minor Counties KO Trophy campaign which ended in disappointing fashion when they lost to Cambridgeshire last Sunday.

There are two changes to the side that was beaten in disappointing fashion by four wickets at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk’s final Group 4 game.

Former Derbyshire batsman Hassan Adnan replaces John Sadler as Suffolk’s professional and Phil Edwards returns to the team in place of Chris Swallow, who is unavailable.

Former Kent bowler Edwards has recovered from a hamstring injury which forced him to sit out all bar the opening group game, and his return will help compensate for the absence of Swallow who bowled well throughout the four matches.

Skipper Justin Bishop could not hide his disappointment at the manner of Suffolk’s exit from this year’s competition when he said: “On the day they played better cricket than we did and they deserved their win.

“Everyone builds themselves up to do well in the one-day competition because we all want to play at Lord’s.

“We would like to think we could have beaten Cambridgeshire, so it was hard to take having played so well in the earlier fixtures - even against Berkshire when we lost we scored over 300 - and then when we battered both Lincolnshire and Norfolk, but last Sunday we didn’t reach the standards we had set ourselves.

“We are now looking forward to the Championship games, which are a completely different format, and to having a successful season with an experienced squad mixed with some youth.”

Suffolk: T Huggins, B France, H Adnan, M Cull, C Warn (wkt), J Bishop, S Harvey, P Edwards, J Finch, B Stephens, S Rees. 12th man: J Sturgeon.