Suffolk will play eight T20 fixtures next season in a new-look Minor Counties programme, writes Nick Garnham.
Four dates have been set aside early in the season when Suffolk will play the same opposition twice on the same day.
Suffolk start with a double-header at home to Norfolk at Woolpit CC, who hosted a Minor Counties match for the first time last season.
They will then face Cambridgeshire away, Bedfordshire at Bury St Edmunds CC and Hertfordshire away. The group winners will then go forward to Finals Day at Wormsley in August.
The T20 group games replace those in the Unicorns KO Trophy, which becomes a straight knock-out competition.
Suffolk, who will continue to be sponsored by Greene King during the 2018 season, have been handed a bye in the first round, as one of last season’s eight quarter-finalists.
They will entertain either Buckinghamshire or Cambridgeshire at Ipswich School, with an away tie in the last eight against Hertfordshire or Oxfordshire awaiting the winners.
The final is again scheduled for Wormlsey, the picturesque ground in Buckinghamshire created by the late Sir Paul Getty.
Suffolk, who finished runners-up in the Eastern Division last season, will start their three-day Unicorn Championship programme with a tough assignment away to Staffordshire in late June.
Bedfordshire will visit Bury St Edmunds the following month, when Suffolk will also host old rivals Norfolk at Copdock & Old Ipswichian CC.
Lincolnshire, who won the Eastern Division last season, will visit Ipswich School in August, sandwiched between trips to Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Suffolk 2018 Fixtures
Unicorns T20
May 6th – Norfolk, at Woolpit CC
May 7th – Cambridgeshire, at Peterborough CC
May 27th – Bedfordshire, at Bury St Edmunds CC
June 3rd – Hertfordshire, away, venue tbc
August 26th – Finals Day
Unicorns KO Trophy
May 20th – Buckinghamshire or Cambridgeshire, at Ipswich School
June 10th – Quarter-finals
July 1st – Semi-finals
August 29th – Final, at Wormlsey
Unicorns Championship
June 24th-26th – Staffordshire, away, venue tbc
July 8th-10th – Bedfordshire, at Bury St Edmunds CC
July 22nd-24th – Norfolk, at Copdock & Old Ipswichian CC
August 5th-7th – Hertfordshire, away, venue tbc
August 19th-21st – Lincolnshire, at Ipswich School
September 2nd-4th – Cambridgeshire, at Saffron Walden
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