The Twelfth Man 2019

The Christmas Sunday lunch was enjoyed by members and guests from far and wide and after a fine meal our main guest, Tim Bresnan was interviewed by Society friend, David Warner. Tim has played 159 matches for Yorkshire since 2003, scoring 5,451 runs, top score 169, average 28.84, with five centuries. He has taken 439 first-class wickets, average 30.52, and taken 88 catches. Tim normally fields in the deep, but is sometimes found in the slip cor- don. He won the NBC Denis Comp- ton award in both 2002 and 2003. In June 2006 he was called up to the England one-day international side, and in May 2009 he joined the Test side. He was selected for the 2010-11 Ashes series and played in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG; he took six wickets, including the final one which saw England retain the Ashes. Along with Luke Wright, Tim set the record for the highest 7th wicket partnership in ICC Champions Tro- phy history. Tim’s impressive Test and international career spanned from 2006 to 2014, playing in all for- mats to a very high level as proved by his international statistics. The interview gave a unique in- sight into the life of a long-standing county and Test cricketer and was followed by an entertaining ques- tion-and-answer session by the au- dience. The vote of thanks given by Mike Cowan (ex-Yorkshire opening bowler) proved to be equally en- tertaining to conclude a fine after- noon. George Dobell is currently the senior cricket corre- spondent at ESPNcricinfo, having also written for Spin Magazine, The Cricketer, The Times, The Guardian and The Birmingham Post and also contributed to the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. He was ghost writer for the auto- biography of former England and Warwickshire cricket- er, Jonathan Trott, Unguarded . In 2018 he was included in the list of most respected journalists by the National Council for the Training of Journalists. He regularly ap- pears on podcasts such as Switch Hit , the Lord’s podcast and One Stump Short . ESPNcricinfo has a regular vid- eo feature at the end of each day of Test Matches Po- lite Enquiries in which George and his colleagues (such as Jarrod Kimber and Melinda Farrell) answer viewers’ questions. He regularly appears on the Test Match Spe- cial journalist panel at lunch and has made several ap- pearances on Sky Sports’ Cricket Writers on TV, Talk Sport and on BBC Radio 5 Live. The audience went straight into question and answers: asked how he became involved in cricket, George said his interest began with Sunday cricket which he enjoyed watching on terrestrial TV, followed up by visits to Som- erset CCC for Sunday league games with his grandpar- ents. Asked how he became involved in cricket journal- ism, George related that he initially had many jobs in journalism before he was offered his dream job of cov- ering cricket in the Caribbean. He realised very quickly that he had found his calling by being paid to do a job which he adored. George was then asked to give his present overall view of county cricket which he follows closely. He replied that we’re lucky to have it in its present form with all the counties managing to survive . The present tinkering be- ing considered (conference system etc) is risky and the last thing we want is counties going under to facilitate a streamlined system. Our guest was inundated with questions about YCCC and the ECB and has to be admired for his frankness in the way he fielded a barrage of questions about the pol - itics which presently prevail. The question and answer session went well into overtime to conclude a fascinat- ing evening. GEORGE DOBELL 10 January 2019 TIM BRESNAN 2 December 2018 Review From L to R Dickie Bird, David Warner and Tim Bresnan