REIGNING champions Lancashire were relegated from the First Division of England’s County Championship yesterday.
Lancashire, who last season ended a 77-year wait for the outright title, had to beat Middlesex at Lord’s after relegation rivals Surrey defeated Nottinghamshire across London at The Oval.
Instead, and despite 10 wickets in the match from captain Glen Chapple, Lancashire lost by 109 with Australian seamer Steven Crook, who started his county career with the ‘Red Rose’, taking five for 48 as the visitors were dismissed for 194.
“You don’t win the Championship then go into the following season thinking you might get relegated,” veteran paceman Chapple told the BBC.
“It’s something we’ll have to look at as to whether we might have been complacent after last year. One for the psychologists maybe. But we certainly worked hard enough.
“All the lads have given everything they had this season, but we have just not put ourselves in enough winning positions and, when we have, we haven’t capitalised on them.
“I don’t want to talk about the weather. I don’t want the supporters to think we’re making excuses. We’ve still played enough cricket to get points on the board but we’ve made mistakes at bad times.” (AFP)