CHRIS BENHAM will make his Hampshire debut in the last game of the season at Derbyshire tomorrow.

Batsman Benham, 21, will replace Lawrie Prittipaul after impressing in the five second XI championship games he has played since graduating from Loughborough University in June.

Benham is set to bat at five after scoring 384 runs at 48.00, including two hundreds, for Tony Middleton's second XI.

But this will NOT be his first-class debut.

Benham, who has captained the Hampshire Academy for the last month, has already played three first-class matches for Loughborough UCCE against four former England bowlers.

He goes into tomorrow's match against second-from-bottom Derbyshire with 128 first-class runs at 32.00 for Loughborough UCCE and is in the form of his life a year after a back operation cured him of a debilitating disc problem.

Benham said: "I really benefited from playing three first-class games for Loughborough against Somerset, Gloucestershire and Sussex.

"I faced Andy Caddick, Richard Johnson, James Kirtley and Martyn Ball and did pretty well, so that was a good experience.

"So the year started well and I've been playing well since I came back, which is basically down to being more mature and more relaxed as well as being over the back injury.

"I would have liked to have had an opportunity to play for Hampshire earlier in the season, but the guys have been playing really well and I got to know them all a bit better when I was 12th man against Glamorgan last month."

Benham is from Yateley and played club cricket for Cove before joining the Hampshire academy.

Hampshire manager Paul Terry said: "Chris has done very well in the seconds since coming back from Loughborough and this is a good opportunity for him with it being the last game of the season. Hopefully he'll do well.

"I've watched him a few times in the second team and for the academy and he's looked very balanced at the crease so it'll be interesting to see how he does."

Benham has played with Jimmy Adams for three seasons at Loughborough and there will be another familiar face behind the stumps when he goes out to bat.

Lee Goddard, another recent Loughborough UCCE graduate, will replace Luke Sutton behind the stumps following the tragic death of the Derbyshire wicketkeeper's girlfriend.

Greg Lamb could also make his first-class debut for Hampshire, six weeks after playing the last of his four totesport National League games.

And James Tomlinson will be hoping to play his first championship match since taking 6 for 63 when Hampshire won the corresponding fixture by ten wickets in the last game of last season.

Terry added: "We'll have a look at the pitch before we make our final decision."

As mentioned in yesterday's Echo, Shaun Udal will skipper the side as Shane Warne is holidaying ahead of a hectic winter which includes three Test series.

Hampshire (from): Adams, Brown, Crawley, Katich, Benham, Pothas, Mascarenhas, Udal (capt), Tremlett, Taylor, Tomlinson, Lamb.