Tony Middleton will be strapping on his pads for the first time in almost five years when he leads the new Hampshire Academy XI into Southern Electric Premier League action against Division 2 rivals Sparsholt on the Rose Bowl Nursery ground tomorrow, 1pm.

But Middleton, who scored over 5,000 first-class runs for Hampshire prior to his retirement in 1995, plans to bat well down the order and allow his young, relatively inexperienced charges do the hard work.

Ian Brunnschweiler, James Schofield and off-spinner Irfan Shah are the the full-time professionals in Middleton's team, which has seven teenagers, including 15-year old Peter Hammond, from Sarisbury Athletic.

Ironically, Middleton's rival captain will be his old adversary Rob Savage, who will take charge of Sparsholt this summer.

"Rob and I go back a long way - to the days when we both played in the Southern League's Under-25 side - but it's ages since we played against each other," Middleton chuckled.

Former Hambledon batsman Archie Norris makes his debut for newly-promoted Winchester KS, who face a tough opener against United Services at Burnaby Road.

Lymington's Western Australian all-round import Aaron Heal plays under new skipper Danny Peacock in the demanding visit to Hungerford, who were relegated last season.

Hampshire's Jason Laney will open for Hungerford, who have also snapped up former Sussex wicketkeeper Nick Wilton.

BAT Sports begin their ECB Premier 1 championship defence with a full-strength line-up at Liphook & Ripsley.

New South Wales University left-hander Michael Watson makes his BAT debut, alongside Andover recruit Kirk Stewart.

Even though Luke Ronchi is in their side, Bashley (Rydal) have injury worries on the eve of their visit to Calmore Sports at Loperwood Park.

Last year's leading 35-wicket taker Matt King is already ruled out for several weeks with a chest ligament injury.

Now skipper Neil Taylor has to wrestle with the prospect of being without his two other key medium-pace bowlers, Kevin Nash and John Whiting, who are both suffering from hamstring pulls.

"The worrying aspect is that both Kevin and John still haven't shaken off the injuries that caused them problems last season," moaned Taylor.

Calmore Sports, who have lost key all-rounder Paul Draper to South Wilts, give a debut to promising Free State medium-pace bowler Christoff Bothma, who was in the South African Academy last year.

Last season's leading SPL runscorer Russell Rowe is optimistic that South Wilts can achieve a top-three finish this time.

But the Bemerton side face near rivals Andover minus highly promising left-arm seamer James Tomlinson, who is playing for the British Universities in a three-day game against Sri Lanka at Northampton.

Tomlinson, who bagged a nap-hand of Somerset scalps last month, added to an already impressive early-season wicket haul by dismissing Kumar Sangakkara in the pre-lunch session yesterday.

Havant, the 2000 league winners, launch their challenge against Raj Maru's newly-promoted Portsmouth and Burridge entertain much-changed Bournemouth.