“I feel like Tom’s time hanging baskets is over,” says Bill Hartley with a proud laugh.
In November, Bill’s son Tom worked in the family flower and plant business for a week; Tom normally works in production. On Sunday Tom produced something even better: he took 7-62 on his Test debut to guide England to victory in Hyderabad.
Tom is the sixth generation of the family to work at Hartley’s Nurseries, a horticultural business in Lydiate, a Merseyside village. It was founded in 1890.
Growing up, Bill remembers Tom being assigned to “produce bedding plants, hanging baskets, and plants for sale at the nursery.” “He would help with watering whatever needed to be done.”
If family business was one of the foundations of Tom’s childhood, sports was another. In 1974 Bill won gold in the 400 meter relay at the European Championships in Rome; He also won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games the same year. His wife Ann-Louise, Tom’s mother, rode competitively. Tom’s older sister, Annabelle, swam competitively at school and university.
“I really wanted to try to create a platform for him where he could progress to the best of his ability,” Bill reflects. “He played a lot of different sports, played rugby, played football.”
While working with plants, “Tom could see the problem solving you need on a daily basis: attention to detail, good habits,” Bill recalls. “If you want to produce a good bedding plant package, everything needs to happen in the right order at the right time. And it’s actually no different than preparing for any sport.
“Isn’t our job to solve problems? Anyway, that’s what his job is about. Because when you don’t work, you have problems every day, something doesn’t work or things don’t work out, etc. You have to find a way.”
Yet for all his sporting genes and encouragement to be active – although Bill never pressured his son to follow him into athletics – Tom’s start in cricket was slow.
Everton’s Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines were Tom’s first sporting heroes. Tom only started playing cricket at the age of 10 after being encouraged to play at Merchant Taylors’ School in Crosby.
“When he came home from a school day he said they had given us a bat, a ball and some stumps – ‘can I have a bat, dad?’ That’s it.”
Tom wasn’t a genius. “He was a late developer, one of those kids who was pretty skinny when he was maybe 13, 14.”
‘He learned his work ethic from work’
What stands out, according to Bill, is Tom’s temperament rather than his abilities. In fact, Bill is jealous of his son’s poise, despite all his sporting achievements.
“I wish I could be like him. He doesn’t get upset. He has a good attitude towards pressure situations.
“He’s a good kid and has worked incredibly hard. And he’s always trying to improve. Work ethic is probably the biggest thing he learned from work and from watching what goes on here.
“Spinners especially, you don’t always have great days and things don’t go your way. But he would come back and analyze what he had done and look at the film. Having that kind of approach helped him a lot.”
A new Barmy Army song? ‘I want to dance with Tom Hartley’
Tom’s cricket went through a rapid growth spurt from age 15 to 19, growing bigger and stronger. As cricket began to usurp football, Hartley ended up at his local club Ormskirk, three miles from the family home.
“I couldn’t praise them enough,” says Bill. “They gave him responsibility at a young age. By the time he was 13, 14 he was playing second team cricket – men’s cricket actually. And they gave him opportunities a bit like what Ben Stokes did.”
18-year-old Tom was offered a degree in marketing at university, hoping to join the family business. Before starting his degree, Tom spent a year in Australia and played club cricket in Melbourne. When he came back Tom said: “Dad, I’d like to give cricket a try.”
In 2019, just before he turned 20, Tom signed a summer contract with Lancashire. He broke into the club’s first-grade and T20 squad the following year, but continued to play for Ormskirk whenever he could; He has managed five Liverpool Premier League matches in 2022.
Tom has close friends at the club and continues to visit whenever he can. In the hours after his seven-wicket trip to England, Ormskirk offered all members a free drink in celebration. Old clips of Hartley singing “I Want to Dance with Tom Hartley” featuring Whitney Houston’s “I Want to Dance with Somebody” with her teammates are testament to the respect held for her here.
‘I knew you’d have a better day after two balls… but I had no idea you were this good.’
Bill did not attend the club celebrations; He was exhausted from the 4am alarm calls throughout the four days of the Hyderabad Test, supplemented by his herbal tea.
“I was hopeless at work and did nothing. The four days were just a blur. I was literally walking around in a daze. You play every ball with him but there is nothing you can do.
For Bill, this is a very different tension than being involved in elite sports.
“I used to be so nervous. And then when the gun goes away, you forget all about it. Then when you race, especially something like the 400 meters, you give it your all. When you get rid of your race, you get the satisfaction of giving it your all. But when you’re watching someone else, it doesn’t happen that way, there’s no salvation.”
While Hartley was bowling on his first day as a Test cricketer, it initially looked like he would not be released either. His first ball was hit six times; He conceded 63 in nine overs.
“You feel sorry for him but you can’t do anything. And the only person who can turn this around is himself. You just have to believe that you have the tools to get to the other side.”
Bill texted his son after the beginning of the punishment. Despite the torrid day, Bill believed Tom could survive what had been the foundation of his entire cricketing journey: his temperament.
“It has a very solid, very balanced spine; It never gets too high, never too low. He is thoughtful and thinks about everything a lot. I think that’s why he was able to recover from what happened to him on the first day. “He analyzed what he was doing and found a way to use the pitch to better effect by changing a few things in the second inning.” Bill noticed how Tom was slowing down India’s pace in the run chase.
“When I watched the first two balls and saw him make changes to his run and the way he delivered the ball, I was confident he was going to have a much better day. But I had no idea he was going to have a day like this.”
Now it’s not just Tom who has to get used to his new situation; So is his father. “Forget about preparing your son for what happened; There is no way to prepare the parents either.”