The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Season 16, Episode 5: Deep into western Victoria, in the land around Harrow and Edenhope, was the home of the great cricketer Unaarrimin, more broadly known as Johnny Mullagh. We've told the story before of his 1868 Aboriginal team that toured England. Last weekend, Geoff headed to Harrow for commemorative matches between the veterans' Indigenous teams of Victoria and New South Wales. It was something special. Also this week, our county cricket updates, some rare multi-day domestic cricket for India's women, and our IPL wrap.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:

7.64 - Satchmo Distel

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Book Club 5: Ben Bloom - Batting for Time: The Fight to Keep English Cricket Alive

Moreso by the year, the future of domestic cricket in England is up for grabs. Operating in a squeezed schedule at the same time franchise tournaments are changing the global landscape, the place of the County Championship and many of its clubs is complicated like never before. In 2023, Ben Bloom explored the underlying issues by interviewing 100 people in the thick of things. The result is this fine and important book, which has made headlines at the start of a new season. He spoke with Adam, appropriately during a county game, at The Oval in London.

Get the book: https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/batting-time

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It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, what is the worst bowl-first decision of all time? And what does it have to do with the Vengaboys and the bravest innings ever played near a giant fruit? Plus the byword for cricket arcania, the portrait that should grace the mantelpiece of Daniel Norcross, and some stories we can tell you about the Stories we can tell you.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:

2.58 - Sam Brown

1008 - Alan Edgar 

5.11 - Jeffrey Gabriel

4.50 - Simon Butcher & Andrew West 

5.69 - Matt May

3.49 - Matt Near the Gabba

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

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Greatest Season That Was, Episode 10 – Damien Fleming. By this stage on the re-release of The Greatest Season That Was series on the 1999 Men’s World Cup, we have revisited interviews with players and broadcasters who were front and centre from South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, England and India. But what about Australia? The story of their staggering semi-final tie was told earlier in the series, but their campaign to that point was already noteworthy. From teetering on the edge of elimination to an internal shake-up to a fateful night of ten-pin bowling, a man in the thick of things throughout was Damien Fleming. The ever-enthusiastic Australian quick takes us back 25 years, but to 1996 as well when they also snuck through the semi only to blow the big one. He explains in this conversation with Shannon Gill (Code Sports), Dan Brettig (The Age) and Adam Collins why history didn’t repeat when the men in the bright gold uniforms made it to Lord’s.

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

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Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners

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Season 16, Episode 4: Cricket got underway in England over the last week, with more rain than balls bowled but some bumper days of play nonetheless, not least the one in which Sam Northeast knocked together 335 at Lord's. Will Nathan Lyon's two overs count as a game played? The wait remains. In Australia, Nic Maddinson moves states again. There's a chaotic week of IPL, the Sri Lanka's women's team complete a historic series win in South Africa, Roberta Moretti steps down after seven years as captain of Brazil, and the world lost Papua New Guinea's finest bowler Kaia Arua.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:

2.90 - Shaun Ton

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

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Title track by Urthboy

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Season 16, Episode 3: Made in heaven, Michael Bevan. He was the very best at what he did - finishing 50-over run chases with the onboard computer scanning every option. But he was a lot more than that: a red-ball maestro, a Test spinner, the most prolific player to walk onto the Sydney Cricket Ground. We were lucky enough to spend our Sydney live show in January 2024 together, in an impressively honest conversation about a career's iconic highs, its great frustrations, and the personal lessons he had to learn to reconcile it all.

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

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Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners

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It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, how did Learie Constantine become lord of his domain? Also, the remarkable tale of a pioneering New Zealander, an Adelaide mystery, a triumph that didn’t feel like one, and Geoff’s favourite of all time.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:

1.97 - Tom Stewart

4.00 - Alex Brown

5.69 - Matt May

2.81 - Alex Crampton

3.07 - Andrew Beech

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

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Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners

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Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com

Title track by Urthboy

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Season 16, Episode 2: If asking who has the most interesting story in world cricket right now, a leading candidates would be David Wiese. From the South African national team to England as a Kolpak, until Brexit put a stop to that. Then another door opened into the Namibian national team, getting the chance to represent a second country at multiple World Cups, showing his talent as a matchwinner on the global stage, then hitting the road as a freelancer in his late 30s in just about every T20 league going. His life is the subject of a new podcast series, Hitman for Hire, and he joined Adam (having just finished a T20 International against Oman!) to tell us how the merry-go-round feels to one riding it.

Listen to David's podcast, Hitman for Hire, a fellow member of the Sports Social Podcast Network: https://podcast.sport-social.co.uk/podcast/hitman-for-hire-a-year-in-the-life-of-a-franchise-cricketer/

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket.

Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk

Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners

All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com

Title track by Urthboy

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Season 16, Episode 1: After two Test caps and about a hundred tours on the bench, Michael Neser has lost his Australian contract and is way down the pecking order. Is it over for the hashtag man? Various South African players are actively dodging contracts, while Jason Gillespie has left South Australia and may be bound for Karachi. Also this week, it's a new season - the English county season will begin with nine matches on opening day. Nathan Lyon will play a reduced part after Cricket Australia clipped his wings. There will be plenty of attention on the use of spinners and the work of wicketkeepers. Bangladesh women struggle against Australia, as do New Zealand against England, but Papua New Guinea’s women had their biggest result. Plus our very tangled IPL wrap.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:

39.70 - Jeremy Brown

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket.

Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk

Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners

All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword

Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com

Title track by Urthboy

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Book Club 4: Steve Cannane - First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards That Made Them

Steve Cannane has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and the ABC's senior foreign correspondent in Europe since 2021. But aside from his important work, his passion is cricket - for decades, he charged in every Saturday as an opening bowler. And it was with his club side, watching a teammate's unorthodox batting technique, where a question was planted: how much do the childhood backyards of players influence what we eventually see at the top level? The answer was a beautiful and much-loved book, First Tests. Originally published in 2009, but just as relevant now, we revisit these stories as Steve prepares to return to Australia. Appropriately, given how much he's loved hanging out in Soho while living in London, it was in a pub in the heart of town where Adam and Daniel Norcross recorded this most fulfilling interview.

Get the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Tests-Australian-Cricketers-Backyards-ebook/dp/B004JHZ4ZQ

Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword

Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw

Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners

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Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com

Title track by Urthboy

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