The famine had lasted apositively biblical 77 years.
The last time that Lancashire had won the County Championship outright was 1934. That was the year some bloke with a Charlie Chaplin comedy moustache was made Führer of Germany and enacted the Night of the Long Knives, blonde bombshell Brigitte Bardot was born and England relinquished the Ashes they had won in the Bodyline series just 18 months before.
In short, it had been a bloody long time.
Confidence cannot have been high at Old Trafford at the outset of the season, but an unfancied bunch of local lads defied the odds and did what their illustrious predecessors who had worn the Red Rose for several generations couldn’t to take the title in a thrilling final-day climax at Taunton.
Victory was all the sweeter because renovations at Old Trafford had forced them to play their home matches at outgrounds – mostly Aigburth – and best of all their triumph coincided with the relegation of bitter rivals Yorkshire.
One of the features of Lancashire’s success was the fact that it was a team effort, but the coaching of Peter Moores, runs of Stephen Moore, the spin combination of Keedy and Kerrigan and the wickets of Kyle Hogg warrant special mention. Most of all though it was the captain Glen Chapple who best epitomised the team’s spirit with his 55 wickets at under 20 and useful runs coming despite him effectively having one leg thanks to continual injury problems.
Links to some of our stories about Lancashire’s remarkable triumph follow and if you want to relive the season, you could do a lot worse than purchasing “Champions... About Bloomin' Time”, which celebrates their glorious season.
Where next?
10 reasons why neutrals should be glad Lancashire won the County Championship
County Cricket 2011 Heroes: Glen Chapple
The Reverse Sweep's County Cricket 2011 Awards
County Championship Division 1 XI of the season
A Year To Forget: County Championship Flops XI of the season
Predicting the County Championship and a bucket load of rotten tomatoes
Read all of our County Cricket coverage
Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes
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