The spectators on Headingley’s famous Western Terrace were, most unusually,
gobsmacked.
Down on the pitch, during an interval in the 1994 England Test against South Africa, a nine-year-old lad was distracting them from the serious business of downing a few restorative lunchtime pints.
They were not to know it, but playing‘Kwik Cricket’ in front of them using a plastic bat and stumps, was a future Ashes hero by the name of Tim Bresnan.
‘He was playing with his brother Nicholas, and they were running in and bouncing each other, or smashing the ball into the crowd,’ recalls Andrew Bourke.
‘It was such an extraordinary display that it had the whole Terrace transfixed, these
two young boys going at each other. Some of us went over just to take a look.’
Hero: Tim Bresnan salutes getting Ben Hilfenhaus' wicket to seal the fourth Test win
Bourke, now first-team captain at Bresnan’s main club Castleford, was at Yorkshire’s academy back then and had been bowling in the nets at Hansie Cronje and Co, but that is what he remembers about the day. Now he is just one of the tight-knit cricket
community in an area of the county best known for rugby league, who is looking on proudly at the impact one of their own has made.
The well of talent that is Yorkshire’s traditional league cricket appears to have sprung
another star, one who seamlessly joined the England team at the MCG and, despite the pressure, played a major part in securing the urn until 2013.
To those who have known him a long time it came as little surprise that he has coped, or that his youthful ability has reached a much wider audience.
Anyone who has played cricket around Castleford knows the Bresnans, who are stalwarts at Townville CC, a smaller club born from a working men’s institute on the outskirts of this league stronghold.
Fresh faced: The Ashes star as a Yorkshire U15 player
Tim’s father Raymond, a skilled tradesman at a local glassworks, played there, and his three sons followed him. The three brothers of mum Julie, who has helped out with the teas there for years, also turned out for Townville.
‘He started playing for our under 13s when he was about 10, and while his brothers are good players, Tim was always head and shoulders above everyone else,’ says the club’s secretary David Booth.
‘If he didn’t get runs, he would always get wickets. The county spotted him young and he moved on to Castleford because they were in the main county league and they wanted him playing at that level.
‘We’re very proud of him and he came back to play for us against Batley two summers
ago, scoring 148 and taking eight wickets. He was always a popular and confident lad, nothing ever seemed to faze him, so I wasn’t surprised he came in and did so well in Melbourne.’
By 13, Bresnan was in Castleford’s adult second team and gained local notoriety when, in four consecutive matches, he took a wicket with his first ball when opening the bowling.
Another of the club’s old boys, Chris Silverwood, was soon to play for England and Bresnan looked likely to follow him when he was picked for the national Under 15 side, and then became the youngest player to play for Yorkshire in 20 years when he made the first team at 16.
Flying high: Tim Bresnan and girlfriendHannah go ballooning
For many prodigious teenage talents in all sports, it can take a while to recognise what is required to make it at the game’s most rarefied level.
Bresnan, like his early admirers on the Western Terrace, may have been a little too fond of a pie and a pint in the‘old school’ environment that once prevailed in county cricket.
Martyn Moxon, the respected former England opener who is his head coach at Yorkshire, believes there were other factors as well.
‘I think he suffered early in his career from being used as a bit of a workhorse, even though he was young. Physically he was able to do it because of his strength and so he bowled a lot of overs, which perhaps wasn’t a great thing for his development,’ says Moxon.
Back in the day: Bresnan's former cricket club Townville, in Castleford, West Yorkshire
‘When I came back to the club four years ago, he already had a lot of experience. His talent is obvious, so I felt with him it was a question of how good he really wanted to be himself.
‘He was easily capable of making a good living from county cricket but he needed to realise that it wasn’t just going to happen at international level. He has developed this hunger to play for England and has really bought into the fitness thing in the past couple of years. He is bowling from close to the stumps and that is helping his ability to swing it both ways.
‘Tim’s a smashing lad and very down to earth. Being an all-rounder at international level is very hard, but I don’t see any reason why he can’t establish himself as that.’
