WORCESTERSHIRE'S reward for beating Hertfordshire and Herefordshire is a home tie against Leicestershire.

A home draw in football is regarded as a major advantage. Seven of the eight teams in the quarter-final draw triumphed while playing at home, but what of New Road?

You can get used to playing at a certain ground, anticipate its vagaries and benefit from the experience: the slope at Lord's or Headingley; the slowness of Bristol or Cardiff; the spin at Old Trafford, the bounce at Leicester.

But you can also develop hang-ups, particularly as a batsman. Dressing room banter about 'quadraphonic' movement (up and down as well as side to side) is entertaining, but doesn't necessarily get you in the right frame of mind for a long knock. Visiting players are free from the accumulation of such negative experiences.

Worcestershire has a unique problem with the flooding; grass can be difficult to grow in the clay top soil which is liable to crack as the water table drops and the surface dries out.

Pitches have tended to be slow for fear of excessive movement should they become dry and cracked.

It is not an enviable situation for a groundsman and one which Roy McLaren has struggled with manfully for the best part of 20 years.

Now, one of his juniors, Tim Packwood, is gaining experience, trying to find that elusive ideal of batsman-friendly one-day pitches and four-day pitches which offer an even balance between bat and ball.

I always reckoned that a good pitch could be judged by whether the nicks carried to second slip.

We'll have to wait and see on that one. Whatever's happening on the pitch, Tom Moody's Worcestershire are playing well. They are benefiting from having a settled side and there is a sense of everyone contributing.

Their form and resolve will be severely examined by Wednesday's visit to Old Trafford against a side themselves finding some form.

A partisan, but knowledgeable, crowd will be all the more excitable under lights. "Watch him Harvey, he's a headhunter," was the advice once memorably given to Neil Fairbrother as he walked out to confront Neal Radford.

It might not be the Theatre of Dreams, but the crowd certainly care for their home side and it can be an intimidating arena.

Worcestershire won there last year, though, under lights in one of their last-over thrillers and a similar result would see them consolidate their position in the promotion places in the Norwich Union League.

Gloucestershire visit New Road at the end of the week. With Ian Harvey back in the side they remain a competitive line-up.

Their one-day has still not translated into four-day success, however. Having lost to Durham in the C&G Trophy and with the B&H final out of the way, they will be focused on the championship.

Worcestershire, in turn, will need to focus on bowling a side out twice which, judging from the Nottinghamshire game, will not be straightforward on a pitch getting progressively easier to bat on.