LUIS REECE SIGNS FOR LEIGH

Date: 29th January 2016

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Lewis Jackson also signs as new skipper Tom Foster gears up for 2016.

Luis Reece has become the latest Lancashire cricketer to sign for a club in the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition.

The 26-year-old opening batsman, whose 2015 season was wrecked by the broken hand he suffered in May, will rejoin his former Leyland colleague Tom Foster, who was elected first-team captain at December’s AGM at Beech Walk.

“The signing of Luis is complete now and i

t’s a really good signing for us,” said 23-year-old Foster. “I hope he’ll play a lot of games.

I’ve not met up with him since it’s been announced because he’s playing cricket in Australia but I think he’s back soon and we’ll have a catch up then.”

Reece will not the only new face at Beech Walk when the new season gets under way in April. Leigh have also signed the former Urmston batsman Lewis Jackson, who will open the batting with Ross Zelem when Lancashire calls prevent Reece playing club cricket.

And there are also high hopes that the club will sign an Australian off-spinning all-rounder to complement leg spinner Mattie McKiernan. It has all helped to make Foster’s first month or so at the helm a very pleasant time, although he is a cricketer who already has plenty of leadership experience.

“I’m really excited about taking the job on,” he said. “I did it a couple of times last season and I’ve done it at junior and representative level. I’m really eager to do it and we’ve got quite a close-knit squad. We’re all good friends, so it’s quite an exciting time.

“There have been no departures and I’m very pleased with the new signings,” he said. “Lewis Jackson is a really solid opening batsman, which is exactly what we need, so he’s a really good signing for us, too.

The presence of players like Zelem, Jackson, McKiernan and Reece in the top order should bolster Leigh’s batting should Beech Walk loyalist Karl Brown be restricted to just a handful of games by his Lancashire commitments, as he was last year when he played only four Premier League games. One of Foster’s clear aims is that the club will not suffer the relegation anxieties which plagued them in August and September last season

“We don’t want a repeat of that scrap again,” said Foster. “Last season our oldest player was 25, so we’re still a very young side who will be better for our experiences last year. We had some good moments in 2015 and we competed against the majority of teams, but we had batting collapses or games got away from us. We’re hoping that Luis and Lewis will help us avoid those problems and we can push for a finish in the top half of the table.”