Will Moulton hosts this SportSpiel feature interview with England cricketers - and best friends - Alex Hartley and Kate Cross.

Together Alex and Kate host the No Balls podcast and they give us an insight into how their popular podcast came about.

We also hear the origins of some of the more unique features of their show - such as the ever-popular relationship advice.
Their friendship may be best described as a 'car crash' by Kate - after it started with an actual car crash - but the inseparable pair also explain just how important their relationship is.

No matter how difficult something is, they always have their friendship to lean on.

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Music: Otis McDonald

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton host the 100th episode of SportSpiel.

To mark the occasion this edition of the podcast is a special compilation show made up of six interviews that had an impact on us and on our listeners.

They are interviews where we learned something for the first time, where we were taught how to battle back in the face of adversity and how the word 'no' doesn't have to mean 'no'.

They are stories that needed to be told, and stories that required immense bravery to open up about.

With the world now completely changed thanks to a virus, they are messages we could all do with hearing right now.

Featuring:

Beth Dobbin - Listen to the full interview here

Sammi Kinghorn - Listen to the full interview here

Ruth Fox - Listen to the full interview here

Marilyn Okoro and Laura Sugar - Listen to the full interview here

Stacey Copeland - Listen to the full interview here

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Music: Otis McDonald

Alasdair Hooper hosts this SportSpiel feature interview with Middlesex and Scotland cricketer Olivia Rae.

Life in coronavirus lockdown has had an impact on everyone, but what happens when you’ve put so much effort towards achieving your dream of playing your sport professionally and then this happens?

On this edition of the podcast, Olivia takes us through exactly that.

After working so hard towards becoming a professional player everything is now on hold thanks to the current situation we all find ourselves in

But this is just a small part of the conversation on this episode, as Olivia takes us through the mental health and anxiety battles she has gone through over the last few years.

She’s in a positive place now, but that wasn’t the case a few months back.

Here she details what happened to her and – more importantly – how she managed to build herself a support network to help herself out of it.

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Image credit: With thanks to Middlesex Cricket 

Music: Otis McDonald

Will Moulton hosts this SportSpiel feature interview with former British athlete Jenny Meadows.

In the first episode recorded since the UK-wide lockdown was imposed the World and European 800m medalist tells all about life right now in these unprecedented times.

But the Olympian also takes us through her role with social enterprise Totally Runable.

Together with fellow Olympian Emily Freeman, Jenny is launching a new initiative aimed at inspiring girls to get active.

The poster campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter asks supporters to pledge anything from £3 up to £5,000 to be a part of the project with rewards for those who pledge

The aim is to raise a total of £6,000 that will allow the team to share photos of girls aged 10-15 doing sports they love with an initial round of 2,500 UK primary schools, aiming to help close the Gender Sport Gap.

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A special thank you to goes to Totally Runable for their ongoing work 

Music: Otis McDonald

Alasdair Hooper hosts this SportSpiel feature interview with basketball player, poet and campaigner Asma Elbadawi.

From a very young age, Asma has always been someone to highlight any inequalities she saw. As it says in her Twitter bio, reframing stereotypes is part of who she is.

To many people she is the person who successfully campaigned for the International Basketball Federation to allow the hijab.

As she says in this episode, she never wanted someone younger than her to say they couldn’t compete in the sport because they weren’t allowed to wear the hijab.

If you take it back even further, to when Asma was younger, she never saw women – specifically muslim women – in sport. The restrictions in place were a large part of the reason as to why that was the case.

It takes a lot for someone to recognise those issues in the first place but it also takes a lot for someone to make a move and change them.

That’s what Asma Elbadawi did - she fought for, and made, those changes.

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A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Music: Otis McDonald

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are joined by GB sailor Eilidh McIntyre for their live show at SuperPod 2020 in Southampton.

During their chat Eilidh opens up all about her career and partnership with Hannah Mills, as the 25-year-old prepares to make her Olympic debut in Tokyo.

But there's also a great deal of reflection on the pain that came before that, namely missing out on Rio 2016. That is something that still fuels Eilidh and is a time in her life that she admits broke her.

Throughout the show Eilidh also talks all about what it takes to be a successful team - her and Hannah are 2019 World Champions in the 470 class - and she also talks about how she deals with the pressure of expectation.

There's also chat on the influence of her dad Mike, who won Olympic gold in Seoul 1988, as well as the best places to sail across the globe.

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Find our more about the More than a Medal event with Marilyn Okoro here - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/more-than-a-medal-an-evening-with-olympic-medallist-marilyn-okoro-tickets-99512859642?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

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A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Thank you to SuperPod for hosting the event

Music: Otis McDonald

Will Moulton hosts the latest SportSpiel feature interview with Middlesex County Cricket batsman Stevie Eskinazi.

For Mintridge Foundation ambassador Stevie, one thing that has proved vital in his career is momentum.

It was key when Middlesex won the 2016 County Championship and it also played a part when they got relegated a year later, although a crossbow arrow also played its part. 

In his conversation on the podcast Stevie explains the passion he has for his work with Mintridge and he also explains how he became a professional cricket player virtually overnight as well as moving to London without knowing a single person.

The two also discuss England's World Cup winning men's team and what that could do for the popularity of the sport in this country as well as the impact of The Hundred. 

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Find our more about SuperPod 2020 and get your tickets here: https://www.superpod.co.uk

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A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Music: Otis McDonald

Alasdair Hooper presents the latest SportSpiel feature interview with Welsh Olympic Trap shooter Georgina Roberts.

The 22-year-old is very much an athlete who knows what she wants. She wants to change the state of play, take her sport to new levels and rewrite age-old gender-based stereotypes. For some people shooting is considered a dangerous activity – not even a sport in some people’s eyes – and it’s certainly not a place for women. Except that’s all wrong and the Women of the Future award winner is on a mission to tell people that. But having that ambition to transform the fortunes of a ‘neglected’, niche sport is one thing. Having the belief in yourself is something very different but that’s what has emerged from Georgina’s rollercoaster 2019.  The British shooter had to take time out from the sport. There was no training and no major competitions and that’s because family came first. Her dad has been suffering from cancer and last year it spread. The 22-year-old took the decision to move back home, get a full-time job and help care for her dad. It’s been tough but that also forced Georgina to focus on herself just as much as she has had to focus on her family. That has led to her accepting herself for who she is and taking huge strides with her personal development.  Now The Mintridge Foundation ambassador is ready to take on the world.

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Donate to Georgina's fundraising page for the Big Vitality Half here: https://themintridgefoundation.charitycheckout.co.uk/pf/georgina-roberts

Donate to Alasdair's fundraising page for the Big Vitality Half here: https://themintridgefoundation.charitycheckout.co.uk/pf/alasdair-hooper

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Visit Georgina's website here: https://www.gtroberts.co.uk

Credits

A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Image credits: With thanks to Georgina Roberts

Music: Otis McDonald

Isle of Man gymnast Grace Harrison had a well-thought-out plan after her historic achievements at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.  But that plan didn’t pan out as expected. Instead it ended in retirement at the age of 23. In 2014, Harrison became the first Manx female gymnast to make it to a Commonwealth Games final at the age of 19. Following that piece of history, she immediately targeted the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games as her next big goal. Injuries, however, dismantled that dream and threw a curveball in the direction of the gymnast. It was something the Mintridge Foundation ambassador struggled to come to terms with but, incredibly, it was a serious bout of illness – namely Sepsis – that set her on the road to recovery.

In this episode the former gymnast takes us through that historic achievement as well as her struggle to come to terms with her retirement.

She also tells us all about that battle with sepsis, how it shaped her life and what her identity is today.

Messages

Donate to Alasdair's fundraising page for the Big Vitality Half here: https://themintridgefoundation.charitycheckout.co.uk/pf/alasdair-hooper

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Credits

A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Image credits: With thanks to The Mintridge Foundation

Music: Otis McDonald

Will Moulton presents the first SportSpiel feature interview of 2020 with Olympic bronze medalist Marilyn Okoro and GB T44 Sprinter and Paracanoe athlete Laura Sugar.

In this episode The Mintridge Foundation ambassadors and athletes talk about their ambitions to represent Team GB in Tokyo this summer.

In our chat Laura explains her transition from hockey to athletics and then to canoeing as a chance viewing at London 2012 made her realise she could actually compete in parasport.

We also talk to Marilyn about receiving her bronze medal 10 years after winning it and her career so far and in the future. 

But both athletes have something in common - they have used the power of no to prove the doubters wrong.

The pair also talk about their work with The Mintridge Foundation and the vital role the charity has to play.

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Credits

A special thank you to The Mintridge Foundation for helping us secure this interview

Music: Otis McDonald