JOHN STEPHENSON, last year's Hampshire beneficiary, helped knock his old teammates out of the Benson and Hedges Cup at Chelmsford.

Stephenson rejoined Essex, ostensibly as the second XI captain/coach, after being released at the end of a benefit season in which he raised £192,000.

But he opened the bowling and the batting yesterday for group winners Essex and it was his medium pace that helped end Hampshire's interest in the competition.

When he came out to bat with England skipper Nasser Hussain, Essex were chasing a revised target of 173. Two rain delays had reduced the contest to 47 overs a side and the Duckworth Lewis calculations meant that one run was subtracted from Hampshire's 174.

Stephenson contributed a second ball duck after Dimi Mascarenhas, once again the pick of the Hampshire attack, had got a ball to nip back off the seam.

But the damage had already been done.

Stephenson, nicknamed Stan, provided excellent back up to Essex skipper Ronnie Irani's 5-28, claiming the scalps of Neil Johnson, John Crawley and Shaun Udal, as Hampshire were bowled out in the 47th over.

Robin Smith's men arrived at Chlemsford knowing that nothing short of a win would be enough to maintain their interest in the competition for the visit of Middlesex today.

Smith won the toss but decided to bat, only to see James Hamblin fail for the first time as a pinch hitter in the B&H.

That man Stephenson was the catcher after Hamblin mistimed an off drive in the second over of the day.

Hamblin has seen his team-mates throw away his express starts over the last week

and this time they failed to deliver when he was dismissed with only six on the board.

Losing Smith and Crawley in successive overs without the addition of a run left Hampshire 78 for five in the 23rd over, facing inevitable defeat against the group leaders.

Will Kendall, back in the side after recovering froma shoulder injury, was the mainstay from then but he ran out of partners in the final over when Alan Mullally edged Irani to Andy Flower in the final over.

Andy Clarke, the man who broke England wicketkeeper's forearm during a net session on Saturday, got the ball to cut back in bowling Nic Pothas and Mascarenhas,

before the latter responded with another fine effort with the ball.

With selection for next year's World Cup a target, he followed up his three wickets at Hove with two more cheap scalps and, with the help of Shaun Udal, gave Hampshire a glimmer of hope.

When Udal got the ball to spin through Ronnie Irani's attempted cover drive, Essex needed 59 off 18 overs with six wickets left in fading light.

But Hussain and Andy Flower succeeded where Hampshire had failed and their efforts meant that an Essex win was never in doubt.

Hussain cracked two sixes - both over long off off the bowling of Macarenhas and Mullally - before Udal snared him lbw, the height of which seemed to upset the England skipper.

Zimbabwe star Flower reached his 50 in 85 balls and saw the home side to victory with more than seven overs to spare, driving Hamblin for three lofted boundaries before being presented with the Gold Award.