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Back Garden Cricket Club episodes
- 1. Howzat Bob?
More than 40 years ago, Broadcasters Whispering Bob Harris (Radio 1, 2 and The Old Grey Whistle Test) and Jon Briggs (Radio 2, 5, The Weakest Link and the Original Voice of Siri) played cricket in Bob’s back garden.
There were homemade rules, magnificent teas, balls regularly dispatched into next door’s garden... and for reasons nobody can entirely explain Bob kept the scorebooks.He still has them.In this first episode we discover where it all began. What happens when you reopen the records of a cricket career you’d completely forgotten you had? And were the peculiar rules of Bob’s garden unique, or did every garden in Britain have its own?That’s what The Back Garden Cricket Club intends to discover, as we begin compiling the definitive Laws of Back Garden Cricket: the ones the MCC somehow failed to include.Welcome to the club. You probably joined years ago.58 min - 2. Aggers Do Stop It!
What do a farmer's handkerchief, a petrol lawnmower, a thrupenny bit and Test Match Special have in common?
The answer is Jonathan Agnew.Aggers joins broadcasters Bob Harris and Jon Briggs to trace the journey from childhood games in a Lincolnshire garden to Lord's, Leicestershire, England and the commentary box. Along the way we'll talk about Peter Lever, Brian Johnston, Geoffrey Boycott, Ben Stokes, broadcasting, bowling, battered Slazenger bats and the glorious madness of back garden cricket.Because every Test career starts somewhere... and it's usually just in front of the watering can.Don't forget - we're compiling the as yet unwritten laws of Back Garden Cricket - please let us know yours in the comments section.
1 hr 14 min
About Back Garden Cricket Club
From the publisher's feed
Back garden cricket has its own laws: unwritten, fiercely argued, and unique to every lawn, patio and flowerbed in the land. Nobody has ever written them down. Until now.
Forty years ago, the legendary Whispering Bob Harris and Jon Briggs, the original voice of Siri, played cricket in Bob's back garden. Most of the players turned up for the fun, and for the magnificent teas. Bob took it rather more seriously. He kept every score and worked out everyone's averages, and he still has them.
Finding those scorebooks brought the memories flooding back, along with the gloriously bizarre rules needed to make cricket work in Bob's garden. So Bob and Jon have set out to compile the laws the MCC somehow forgot to catalogue.
With the help of some brilliant professional cricketers, they're going back to where it all began: "one hand, one bounce", "tip and run" and the rest. After all, no first-class cricketer started out at Lord's or the MCG. They started with a watering can for a wicket and a healthy fear of the rule that a six over next door's fence means you're out.
Pads on. Welcome to the Back Garden Cricket Club.