Whether the depression which was due to rumble in from the west last night will somehow by-pass Lord's is, sadly, doubtful. If it does, Leicestershire will start favourites. They have won three of their four previous finals and even without a stalwart fast bowler, David Millns, and a rising one, Jimmy Ormond, they should lift the gold cup for the last time, either today or on the reserve day tomorrow.

A straw-coloured pitch awaits, next door to the strip which provided pace and bounce for the second Test last month, but this one has not been relaid and if it takes some spin, the guile and experience of Peter Such could shift the odds. Having lost three wickets in their first over at Southampton during the week, Essex will hope to have purged any possibility of another batting collapse.

Also at the ready is the expensive new hover-cover, which proved its worth during the Test, and the most extensive tarpaulins on any ground. But what are the odds on the Benson and Hedges being decided by a bowl-out shortly before the World Cup is determined by penalties? The regulations are clear: if a match has to be abandoned before its conclusion, five players from each side (indoors or outdoors) will bowl overarm, two deliveries each, at a wicket pitched 22 yards from a single stump.

The side which bowls down the wicket most times will be the winners. If the scores are equal, the same players will bowl one ball each alternately to achieve a result on a sudden-death basis. Since this is the B and H, let us call it the ``golden wicket.''

Despite Leicestershire's notoriously small membership - they have returned half of their allocated 4,500 tickets, so there will be seats for sale at Lord's this morning - they are an efficient side, playing good cricket under Chris Lewis, whose second successive final this is. He played a vibrant part for Surrey last year and both he and his new ball partner, Alan Mullally, have economy records of fewer than four runs an over in the competition.

The issue may turn on the ability of these two to breach Essex's probable opening pair of Paul Prichard, who led from the front when Essex won the NatWest last September, and Stuart Law, who is overdue the sort of match-winning performance he has made habitual in his two previous seasons for Essex.

By the same token, Essex's new ball bowlers, Mark Ilott and Ashley Cowan, will be taking on Leicestershire's prolific pocket battleship, Darren Maddy. In a phenomenal season in this competition, England's future opening batsman has scored 136 not out against Lancashire, 151 against the Minor Counties, 89 against Northants, 93 not out against Kent and 120 not out against Surrey.

Leicestershire have certainly run into a rich vein of form in recent weeks. Lewis and company may well believe that they have the ``name on the Cup'' quality which often sustains sporting sides through critical games and they showed their mettle in the semi-final against Surrey when Maddy and Ben Smith put on 172 for the second wicket with batting of great elan.

Essex's path has been typical of a topsy-turvy season. They lost to Middlesex in the group match before getting their revenge in the quarter-final, by only eight runs, at Lord's.

Prichard for Darren Robinson, whose broken finger solves a potentially difficult selection decision, is the only change from that match. Stephen Peters, who top-scored with 58 not out, is the replacement for Robinson compared with the XI who won the NatWest final last season and his century in the final of the under-19 World Cup last winter suggests that this aggressive little right-hander will be far from overawed by the big occasion.

It is a poignant affair, whatever the result. The advent of the one-day internationals in England, also in 1972, eventually proved fatal to the B and H. From the outset, discerning voices questioned the wisdom of three different limited-overs competitions for the counties, with all the travelling involved, not to mention the careless batting and defensive bowling habits which became ingrained. Once internationals became a regular part of the calendar, it was increasingly plain that something had to give.

Yet there are many who believe the wrong competition is dying. More than one county secretary was wondering in the early weeks of this season if they had done the wrong thing in condemning the B and H to history. It was not just a question of rejecting one of only two of cricket's long-standing sponsors to remain unflinchingly loyal to the game, but also a belief - shared by many players - that the midweek league matches which preceded the knock-out stages of the competition provided an interesting start to the season for players and spectators alike, and gave England's one-day players ideal preparation for the internationals.

To have the group matches concentrated into a fortnight, with championship games either side, gave a sensible balance to the tricky first month of the season, when majority public awareness was fixed on the climax of the football and rugby programmes. This year Scotland and the British Universities both managed to give the counties in their group tough games - the Universities beat Gloucestershire and Scotland gave Derbyshire a nasty fright - and all the counties knew that defeat in more than one encounter would mean no place in the quarter-finals.

Unlike the Sunday League, this was cricket designed to breed England cricketers who excel rather than wilt when the pressure mounts. Given the amount of one-day international cricket, a 50-over tournament has to be a relevant part of the wider scheme and the plan is that the new 50-over ``National League'' - the ECB are still making bullish noises about a sponsor but no name has yet been unveiled - will fill the void with the right sort of cricket from next season onwards.

Essex (probable): *P J Prichard, S G Law, N Hussain, R C Irani, S D Peters, A P Grayson, D R Law, +R J Rollins, M C Ilott, A P Cowan, P M Such.

Leicestershire (from): V J Wells, D L Maddy, I J Sutcliffe, B F Smith, P V Simmons, Aftab Habib, +P A Nixon, *C C Lewis, D Williamson, A D Mullally, M T Brimson, J M Dakin, T J Mason.

Umpires: R Julian and M J Kitchen.

Third umpire: J C Balderstone.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

(11am start unless stated)

BENSON & HEDGES CUP FINAL (1 day)
Lord's: Essex v Leicestershire

NORTHERN ELECTRIC TROPHY (1 day)
Scarborough: Yorkshire v Durham.

TOMORROW (12 July 1998)

AXA LEAGUE (1 day, 2pm start unless stated)
Derby: Derbyshire v Worcestershire (1). Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire v Glamorgan. Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Kent.

TOUR MATCH (1 day)
Southampton: Hampshire v Sri Lanka (10.45). Dublin: Ireland v S Africa (11.00).

WOMEN'S ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL
Scarborough: England v Australia (10.45).