The good news is that today's will almost certainly be the last final to be staged in September. On next year's proposed fixture list, currently being studied by the counties, the final is firmly fixed for Aug 28. The extra week should make a significant difference, allowing the authorities to consider an 11 o'clock start rather than the notorious dewy beginning at 10.30 and, if recent weather trends continue, giving a much better chance of the sunny day for which eager players and fervent spectators yearn.

A full house is expected today and so, too, is a decent contest between the most successful club since the knockout cup started and a raggle-taggle combination of gnarled veterans and fresh-faced tyros whose plan is to slay their third giant in a row. Against Surrey and Leicestershire, away from home on each occasion, Derbyshire overcame the odds and the manner in which they fiddled their way in the later stages to a three-run win at Grace Road simply underlined how impossible to predict these 60-over games can be.

A personal duel within the main contest lends added piquancy today, between Wasim Akram, a great bowling all-rounder, and Dominic Cork, an inspirational one. Derbyshire announced only this week that Cork, whom many considered to be an extraordinary choice for the captaincy after the bitter internal dissension of 1997, will lead the club again next year. By contrast, Wasim is aware of speculation about possible alternative overseas players - Muttiah Muralitharan or the Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill. He will not lack motivation.

Kevin Dean, like Wasim a left-arm opening bowler, whose genuine inswinger and 65 first-class wickets this season must have made him a close contender for the England A tour, is expected to have recovered from injury sufficiently to take the new ball for Derbyshire. If Cork is in one of his swinging, rather than hitting the deck, moods, the prospect of a cloudy morning and a lost toss, especially with Phillip DeFreitas in Derbyshire's attack against his former colleagues, should be sufficient to create anxiety even in a team as accomplished as Lancashire's.

This, nonetheless, might be the best chance of a really close final. Lancashire have to be strong favourites on paper, because of their enviable record on the big occasion at Lord's - this is their 10th Gillette or NatWest final and they have won six of them - and because of the mature accomplishment of their current team. Neil Fairbrother will be appearing in his 10th Lord's final, breaking David Hughes's record, and Mike Watkinson would be doing so, too, if he were to get a place in the eleven. He was standing by yesterday as a possible replacement for Mike Atherton, whose suspect back is still causing him some pain.

Mark Chilton, who has a good record in one-day cricket for Lancashire and the British Universities, is the alternative. He is a stylish batsman who can also bowl medium-paced wobblers of the kind Kim Barnett and Vince Clarke produced in the late stages of the semi-final to deny Leicestershire when they had needed only 56 from 12 overs with six wickets standing.

The fact that the game is to be played on one of the Lord's strips which has not yet been relaid adds to the possibility that some of the lesser considered bowlers - including, perhaps, Lancashire's experienced off-spinner, Gary Yates - will play a significant part. Before being put to bed beneath the hovercover as the clouds arrived yesterday, the pitch looked white but it will not be so pacy as the ones produced for the big occasions so far this season.

Part of the charm of finals staged as leaves begin to curl and players to remember their mortality is the possibility that great cricketers may be appearing on a major stage for the last time. Wasim made it clear yesterday that he does not want to leave Lancashire: ``I've had two offers from other counties but I want to stay . . . I regard Lancashire as my home.'' He is only 32 and has led from the front this year, but two different injuries have troubled him.

For Derbyshire, even Kim Barnett cannot go on forever. For all his unorthodox stance, he is a batsman with a wonderful eye who obeys the essentials and if he could get a start with a partner as brilliant as Michael Slater, Derbyshire will have every chance, even against a Lancashire eleven of whom eight are going on one or more of the England winter tours. The most unexpected of the chosen eight, Graham Lloyd, promptly made 212 not out in under five hours as Lancashire beat their opponents today by an innings in the championship match which ended, to the relief of both sides, on Thursday.

The side batting first have won 10 of the last 11 September finals but this should be the last when the toss at least threatens to be decisive.

Lancashire's Andrew Flintoff, 20, was last night unveiled as the Cricket Writers' Club's young player of the year after beating off competition from eight other candidates.