HAMPSHIRE new boy Richard Logan reckons his net sessions with Bruce Reid can help him put a forgettable last two seasons behind him.

Logan, a close friend of Kevin Pietersen, moved to Hampshire from Notts at the same time as the England star, having joined the East Midlands county at the same time as his Ocean Village flatmate back in 2000, writes SIMON WALTER.

But, while Pietersen destroyed county attacks for Notts, Logan fell out of favour and only played six first-class games in his last two seasons at Trent Bridge.

Now, though, he is ready to make up for lost time after improving his game under the watchful eye of Hampshire bowling coach Reid during the winter.

Logan, who spent the winter in Perth with 11 other Hampshire players, said: "I was out there for seven weeks and got to know a lot of my new teammates as well as train really hard.

"Bruce Reid was really good to work with, I had one-on-one sessions with him every other day and spent a lot of time talking about bowling with him.

"I learnt a lot and concentrated on working on a technical part of my action to do with my front arm. I'm still working on it but it's going really well.

"Hopefully I'll be hitting the crease off a long run at full pace with it when the season starts, that's a target I'm on course to reach."

One of the few high points of a forgettable last two seasons for Logan was his performance at the Rose Bowl last June, when he recorded match figures of 8 for 90 as Notts beat Hampshire by an innings and 44 runs on their way to the second division title.

That was the 25-year-old's penultimate match for his second county, and the Staffordshire-born seamer arrives at Hampshire with 107 first class wickets at 34.79 since making his debut for Northants in 1999.

He added: "The wicket we played on at the Rose Bowl last year was really conducive to my type of bowling, I look to hit the deck pretty hard.

"But even though they lost that game I could see that Hampshire was a good club to play for and that Shane Warne is a great captain.

"The whole atmosphere around the ground is forward thinking and professional and everyone is enthusiastic and seems to know exactly what their roles are. It's so exciting to be a part of it."

Logan believes he is in the right place to fulfil the potential that saw him represent England at under-15, under-17 and under-19 level

"The Notts coach, Mick Newell, didn't see me as a bowler he wanted in his side but everyone has their own opinion and Hampshire wanted to have me so it was a perfect match," added Logan, who knows Pietersen as well as anyone.

"We joined Notts at the same time and have been close friends ever since. He's a really good character to have around, he's a funny bloke and very helpful as a teammate.

"Because I'm a bowler and he's a batter we work really well together, he knows my action having seen it so much over the last four years and has also helped with a couple of technical areas of my batting."