LANCASHIRE’S Luis Reece has spoken of the personal loss which caused him to break his left hand punching a dressing room wall earlier this season.

The left-handed batsman has revealed that a run of low scores at the top of the order in the Red Rose first-team was only part of the reason for an out of character act which cost him 10 weeks of cricket from early May onwards.

Reece, 25, suffered the heartache of losing his grandmother and a close friend around the time when Lancashire faced Gloucestershire in a Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford from May 10.

And a poor lbw decision was the tipping point for his dressing room error.

The former Leeds/Bradford MCC Universities captain returned to first-team action at Essex last week, scoring an encouraging 82 batting at number three, and he is now preparing for a winter of grade cricket in Australia.

He will soon return to the Gosnalls club for the second year running, but this winter will also train with state squad Western Australia, coached by Test legend Justin Langer.

It is something he describes as a “great opportunity” as he bids to win a place in Lancashire’s Championship team in 2016.

“I’m quite open with what happened,” he said.

“It wasn’t cricket reasons that forced me to do it. Personal reasons at home…I lost a couple of people at home early season, and it all got on top of me.

“As a result, I did something out of my character and regret it - missing two months of the season.

“But it is a lesson learned, and I feel stronger for it. The period I had out was time for me to assess things.

“I just want to play with a smile on my face and relax, and hopefully that brings the best out in me.

“It killed me watching the lads go out there and play when I couldn’t. It’s never nice knowing that you can’t play. It was a kick in the teeth. Luckily the boys had a great season, winning the T20 and getting promotion.”

Reece scored two hundreds in seven second-team appearances since returning from injury before top-scoring at Essex last week.

There are going to be first-team places available next year, most notably one at number four to replace Ashwell Prince: “If the management want me to bat four, I’m more than happy to bat four,” he added.