Axe finally falls on the Red Rose in Champo
LANCASHIRE will be playing Second Division cricket next season after their relegation from the top flight of the Specsavers County Championship was finally confirmed.
The axe has been hanging over the Red Rose since their defeat to Yorkshire earlier this month. But it finally fell yesterday when they were bowled out for 273 in their first innings at Hampshire, meaning they were unable to claim the maximum batting points needed if they had any chance to staying up.
It has been a dismal season for Lancashire, who many people had tipped at the start of the campaign to win the title.
Two wins from their 13 games so far says it all. And now the club face a winter of major decisions over a number of senior players who just haven’t performed this season.
But despite being relegated, captain Liam Livingstone doesn’t believe the side is among the worst two in the eight-team division.
“At times this season we’ve been very bad for hours here and there, and that has killed us,” he said.
“So do I think we’ve been one of the two worst teams? No, I just think when we’ve been bad we’ve been very bad and it’s ultimately cost us.
“I think if you look at the Premier League it is like five teams going down in football. If I’m honest, I think for two out of eight to go down in the top division is tough.
“But then again it creates pressure all the way through and there is no let off though the season.
“I don’t think we are one of the two worst teams in the competition, but we are second bottom for a reason.
“We will have a think about what we have done this season and, hopefully, we can improve on it going forward.
“Next year we are going to have to learn from what we have done but the good thing is we are building a good squad with the young lads coming through.”
One of those young players is Rob Jones, who scored 68 yesterday on the second day of their match with Hampshire.
One of the stars of the season – Tom Bailey – made it 62 wickets for what has been an impressive campaign taking 2-36 as Hampshire reached the close on 178-8, a lead of just 92.
He was well supported by new signing Richard Gleeson, who claimed 3-45, and Josh Bohannon, who took 3-46.
“At some point today we thought we might be in with a chance of pulling off a miracle but we knew it had to be a miracle coming into the game,” added Livingstone.
“The way we’ve played the last two days, no one’s given up.
“Everyone’s still running in and the way that Tom Bailey has bowled, I think it shows a lot about us as a team.”