Lancs aces fired up to do it all again

Kyle Hogg and Luke Procter

HAVING won their first County Championship for 77 years, you would expect the pressure to be off Lancashire.

But the general feeling among the players – including local stars Luke Procter and Kyle Hogg – is that the hard part is yet to come.

As defending champions, Lancashire’s young team will be there to be shot at in the 2012 LV=County Championship season which gets under way with a four-day game against Sussex at Liverpool tomorrow week.

And Hogg, from Greenfield, is braced for another demanding campaign after the glory of 2011.

“When you look over the years at the many great players who have represented Lancashire, it makes it even more special that this team was able to do it.

“To finally do it was a great achievement, but as good as it was last year it counts for nothing this season.”

Procter, the former Royton CC professional, broke into the Lancashire first team last summer, having started the season happy to get involved in the one-day teams. Seven County Championship matches yielded 366 runs at just over 40, giving him the best average in the senior side.

A successful pre-season, including a century in Dubai, has further pushed his claims for a regular starting spot, and Procter said: “Now I have had a taste in the first team, I want to play in every match in every form of the game.”
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