Stephen Moore’s career with Lancashire has not been without incident. Across three years, he has suffered a dislocated shoulder, won an LV= County Championship title, had to leave a match midway through to attend the birth of his first child and endure a baffling summer of 2012, which saw him excel in limited overs cricket yet battle for runs in the four-day arena.
After spending one winter fighting his way back to fitness (2010/11), he is spending the latest one trying to rediscover his undoubted ability to score runs against the new ball in Championship cricket ahead of 2013.
And if he can come back the way he did in 2011, albeit under different circumstances, then everybody connected with Lancashire will be absolutely delighted.
The South African-born right-hander, who played for the England Lions shortly before arriving at Old Trafford in late 2009, had a summer to remember as the county marched towards the four-day gong.
On the field, he scored his first two Championship hundreds in a Lancashire shirt and amassed an impressive total of 1,835 runs across all three competitions. He was the club's leading run-scorer in the Friends Life t20 competition.
Off the field, he became a father for the first time, leaving the match against Worcestershire at New Road to be at the birth of his daughter.
His stunning 2011 came on the back of a patchy first campaign with the Red Rose county, in which he scored a couple of one-day centuries against Surrey and his former county and returned a couple of valuable contributions in the Twenty20 arena.
But he struggled to assert himself in the Championship, scoring only 426 runs from nine matches.
His season was curtailed when he dislocated a shoulder in a fielding accident during the Twenty20 quarter-final against Essex at Chelmsford in late July. It prompted him to worry about the strength of his throw in the lead up to 2011.
In his second season with the county, he topped 1,000 first-class runs in a campaign for the fourth time in his career and posted 124 not out to secure a win against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge before an unbeaten 169 in the penultimate match of the summer against Hampshire at Liverpool.
It was a knock that was overshadowed by Simon Kerrigan's famous nine-wicket display, although it was a measure of the man that he was not at all bothered by that. "Keggsy's display was absolutely world-class," he said. "He deserved to take all the plaudits."
A shocked Moore was presented with his county cap by Chairman Michael Cairns at the 2011 Player of the Year dinner.
In 2012, Moore was exceptional in both forms of white ball cricket. He scored 581 runs from 13 CB40 matches, including one hundred and six fifties, and notched 249 from eight Twenty20 outings, including three fifties.
In fact, he started the limited overs campaign with six scores of fifty or more in seven outings, later posting an excellent 113 off 105 balls against Worcestershire in a washed out 40-over match at New Road in August.
Unfortunately, however, he could not replicate that kind of form against the red ball. He failed to pass 47 in 22 first-class innings, and was left out of the side for the latter stages of the season.
A versatile batsman, Moore spent a prolific seven-season spell with Worcester having played second-team cricket at New Road and at Sussex after moving to England with his English parents at the age of 18.
Like 2011, the Exeter University graduate (Master of Engineering) will look back on 2009 in particular with a great deal of satisfaction. He scored a superb 120 against the touring Australians for the Lions at New Road, putting the likes of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson to the sword.
He also scored a Championship ton against Lancashire for Worcestershire at Old Trafford in front of the watching Peter Moores. Ironically, he did not score another hundred until the innings for Lancashire at Trent Bridge.
Moore, who has toured New Zealand with the Lions, was subsequently named in the England Performance Programme squad in the winter of 2009/10.
He has since formed an impressive alliance at the top of the order in Championship cricket with Paul Horton - the pair notched three century partnerships in the last three innings of 2011 - and with Tom Smith in both forms of limited overs cricket.
Hopefully there is still a whole lot more to come from Moore, who is also a very keen tennis player (he has played a practice match at Wimbledon against former Worcester team-mate Steven Davies), saxophonist and guitarist.
Graham Hardcastle
(c) Lancashire CCC Ltd
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