I WAS part of the Derbyshire side that was beaten in the 1988 B&H final by Hampshire and that was such a disappointing day because we never gave ourselves a chance.

We had the opportunity to make up for that when we went back to Lord's five years later but I had the same sinking feeling in the dressing room when we were in a bit of trouble early in our innings at 66-4.

I remember thinking: "Not again – coming down here for it to finish early again." We just needed someone to get a score because I knew we had the bowlers to beat anybody, even though Lancashire had a good side.

Thankfully, Dominic Cork and Tim O'Gorman put a partnership together. They added 109 for the fifth wicket to give us a chance and Corky had another good partnership of 77 with Karl Krikken for the seventh wicket.

I was due to go in next after Karl. I was so nervous watching them that I could not feel my legs but, thankfully, I wasn't needed. Corky was 92 not out and we made 252-6.

The mood in the dressing room was very happy because we knew that was a total we could defend.

I opened the bowling with Devon Malcolm and I got Steve Titchard out early on. I also got the wickets of Graham Lloyd and Wasim Akram and I felt very pleased with my afternoon's work – 3-31 in 11 overs.

But Lancashire were a good side and we couldn't kill them off. Mike Atherton got 54 and Neil Fairbrother was still there at the end with them needing 11 to win off the last over.

It was all down to Frankie Griffith to stop them and he bowled brilliantly in that last over. He was good at bowling yorkers at the end of the match but there was a lot of pressure on him and I was thinking: "Don't bowl a wide, don't bowl a no-ball."

I shouldn't have worried. They could only score four runs off Frankie in that over and he will be remembered for that for the rest of his life.

When we got back to the hotel, I saw the chairman and a few of the players in the bar, had a few drinks and I don't recall anything else until Sunday morning.

But the feeling of winning the cup stayed with me and what made it sweeter was that it more than made up for the disappointment of losing to Hampshire.