WORCESTERSHIRE director of cricket Tom Moody revealed a change of technique has been behind the revival in Graeme Hick's fortunes at the age of 38.

Hick notched the 125th first-class century of his career - just one behind WG Grace - with 158 on the opening day of the Frizzell County Championship Division One clash with Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

He is now top of the national batting averages and has overtaken Surrey's Scott Newman as the highest scorer in the country with more than 700 runs.

Moody believes that Hick is making up for lost time after the disappointments of the 2003 campaign, which was the least productive of his lengthy career when he managed just 670 runs at an average of 33 and finished 114th in the averages in a campaign interrupted by a broken hand in June.

Question marks were being raised over whether Hick's glorious county career, which never fully blossomed on England duty, was ending.

But Hick went away in the winter, re-assessed and worked on his technique and is now paying the dividends. He had already notched up double centuries against the New Zealand tourists and Gloucestershire ahead of the clash with Warwickshire.

Moody said: "He is in superb form. He has thought a lot about his batting over the last six months or so. He reflected on last season and by his standards it was not the best of years.

"He has made a few technical changes and he is reaping the rewards.

"Last season a lot of people may have been questioning where his career was going but he always has had an incredible appetite for runs.

"He is a very professional sportsman. He doesn't leave any stone unturned in his preparation.

"This winter he very much approached it in that way and he is in a rich vein of form and it's pay-day. He is making up for lost time.

"It is quite obvious with the big totals that he's got that he is catching up on what he missed out on last season. One thing we worked on in the winter was his position at the crease on the bowler's release of the ball.

"His head was something we worked on, also his back-lift and footwork and it has all come together.

"It took a few months but he has really grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and it is paying dividends. He's looking more like the Graeme Hick of the late 1980s and early 1990s with his bat in the air than what he was from the mid 1990s to early 2000s."