Lawrence, 32, suffered a horrific injury when bowling for England against New Zealand at Wellington in February 1992, splitting his left kneecap. This injury was repeated on an earlier comeback trail.

But Lawrence feels that all is now well with the knee. ``Before, I was too keen to play again and didn't give myself time to recover properly,'' he said yesterday. ``I then decided that, though I would keep fit generally, I would rest the knee and this has worked out fine. I can now put 600 lbs of pressure on it and then go for a run.

``What decided me to have another go was playing a match at Paul Getty's ground last summer. Against decent opponents I bowled two good spells and that set me thinking I might make it again.''

Lawrence then turned away for a bowling stint in Bristol's indoor nets under the watchful eye of Bob Cottam, former Hampshire, Northants and England bowler who is now Gloucestershire's bowling coach.

Lawrence bowled seven rapid overs at Gloucestershire batsman Tim Hancock, showing good control and swinging the occasional ball away. Cottam was impressed. ``He looks very strong and solid and is still very quick,'' he said.

Lawrence said: ``It's fine at the moment, but I'm taking nothing for granted. I'm going to Zimbabwe with the Gloucestershire boys for 16 days next month and we'll see how that goes. The big test will be when we come back and play on grass. Indoors, using rubber soles, the foothold is very firm, which isn't the case outside and that might cause a problem.''

If all goes well Lawrence hopes to play about 10 championship games this season. It would be great to see this wholehearted cricketer racing in again on a first-class field.