"WELCOME to Liverpool, the 2008 European city of culture," said the former BBC commentator John Gwynne in a new role as Lancashire's PA announcer before play began at Aigburth yesterday.

But in cricketing terms, Mark Chilton was five years early.

As you might expect from the only remaining Manchester Grammar School old boy in the Lancashire team, Chilton traded only in boundaries of the highest class as he continued his best ever start to a season on the first day of the Frizzell Championship game against Leicestershire.

Chilton, whose two previous centuries this year against Middlesex and Essex came in his new position at number five in the batting order, returned to his former role as an opener with Alec Swann the unlucky man forced to drop out by Lancashire's wealth of batting resources.

But he still played with his new-found freedom and confidence as he stroked 10 fours in his 50 and added another six cultured boundaries before rain stopped play on the first day - with Lancashire 210-1 - most of them skimming through the covers on the fast Merseyside outfield.

Chilton has come a long way since he made his debut at Aigburth - in 1997 against Glamorgan, when he was called away from his studies at Durham University and given the daunting task of filling in for Wasim Akram, then found himself part of a spectacular Lancashire collapse to 41 all out in only 14 overs.

He opened up with Iain Sutcliffe yesterday after Warren Hegg won the toss, with the Leicestershire old boy returning against his old county after two weeks out having the top of his thumb shaved off.

They were tied down early on by some accurate bowling from Charlie Dagnall and especially Phil DeFreitas, no stranger to Aigburth after his years with Lancashire, but broke free to reach 104 without loss at lunch.

Sutcliffe, who followed a century in his last Championship innings against Essex with 55 from 117 balls, only lasted one ball after the interval, edging Leicester's former Kent seamer David Masters to second slip where Darren Maddy took a good catch.

But the punishment continued for the struggling visitors as Mal Loye, like Sutcliffe a keen follower of Liverpool FC, relished his first innings in the city by racing to a 73-ball half century with 10 fours.