YORKSHIRE will give a Championship debut to at least one of their young fast bowlers in the opening match against Nottinghamshire which begins at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.

Australian-born Mitch Claydon and Steve Patterson, from Hull, have both won places in the squad of 12 following good bowling in the game against Leeds-Bradford Universities which ended in a draw at Headingley yesterday after rain and a wet ground had washed out the final day's play.

Claydon, already one of the sharpest bowlers on Yorkshire's books, did particularly well with figures of 5-37 from 11 hostile overs, but Patterson will also be satisfied with his 3-24.

Yorkshire are having to rely upon their young bloods at Trent Bridge because they are still awaiting the arrival of Australian Test bowler Jason Gillespie while South African ace Deon Kruis is out for at least three weeks with a torn calf muscle.

The good news is that Tim Bresnan will go into the match with five first class wickets under his belt and a career best 94 after doing well for MCC in their match against Nottinghamshire at Lord's and Darren Lehmann will boost the batting in his first appearance of the season, having stood down from the friendly games.

One player who is guaranteed to make his Yorkshire Championship debut is wicketkeeper-batsman Gerard Brophy, who was signed during the close season from Northamptonshire.

Although the sun was shining by early afternoon the ground was too wet to get started yesterday when the students would have had to bat out the day to save the match after being set an impossible 644 for victory.

The universities side was not really strong enough to give Yorkshire a proper test with either bat or ball but all of Yorkshire's top six batsmen were grateful for the opportunity to score an avalanche of runs.

Former Yorkshire bowler Ryan Sidebottom will go into tomorrow's game in form having taken seven wickets in Nottinghamshire's final friendly against the MCC at Lord's, which they won by 142 runs.

Yorkshire (at Nottinghamshire): from Wood, Sayers, McGrath, Lumb, Lehmann, White, Brophy, Dawson, Bresnan, Patterson, Blain, Claydon.

Updated: 10:28 Tuesday, April 18, 2006