Its 2025 and we are back! I don’t know about you, but Dry January hasn’t gone too well. To be honest by mid-morning on New Year’s Day it was starting to drag and by lunchtime we’d given it up altogether.

Once again, the internet’s favourite virtual cricket pub has thrown open its doors and first through them for 2025 was our Richard ( Brim-full Of) Asher. And he was certainly brim – full of optimism and New Year cheer now that his South Africa have decided that they actually do like Test Cricket and have made it the WTC final.

As we crack open a drink or two (a cider for Richard), we pick the bones out of that enthralling South Africa and Pakistan series and lament that it was just two Tests. Having warmed up with that, we celebrate a fabulous (and fabulously attended) Border Gavaskar Trophy pausing to consider who were stars, who were the fools and why did Virat Kohli act like a spoilt child?

We cast an eye on the Women’s Ashes too and of course, discuss Richard’s 2024 review and just what he thinks about Vernon Philander’s punditry. Let’s just say he was a fine bowler but not such a fine wordsmith in Richard’s eyes (or ears).

We are really looking forward to your company this year. Not long now until we are back on air. By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers and Welcome Back

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Ho Ho Ho. It’s nearly time for the fat jolly bearded gentleman to arrive. To be fair, that could describe most Guerillas (obviously the likes of Annie and indeed our guest today excluded).

The halls and walls of the Bishop and Bear are decked with boughs of holly and our Barstool of Bravado guest to look back on the New Zealand series and the year in general is the admirable, ambitious and prolific Hector.  

Hector has been our man on the spot at all three New Zealand Tests, hobnobbing with media glitterati, asking the tough questions in press conferences and drinking and dining with Fleet Street’s finest and former England Test alumni alike. If you haven’t been following his daily match previews, reports, interviews where have you been?!

Settle back with a drink and enjoy the chat as we find out just what else the lad has been up to as well as ask why England are so much like the little girl in Longfellow’s poem – “When they are good they are very good, but when they are bad they are horrid”.

We chew over the Test year in general, pick our magic moments and horror stories and look, not just at England, but at Test cricket in general. To round up, as our Ursine Landlord is about to shut up the shutters for Christmas, we each reflect upon what we would we do if we were in charge for a day of the ICC and the ECB respectively.

And finally we let Santa know, loud and clear, what’s top of our Cricket Christmas list and what our cricketing New Year resolutions are.  What are yours by the way. Let us know.

If you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Season Greetings from

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Hector and Henry’s World of Cricket. We are joining you from across the world – Henry is playing cricket for the Darren Lehman academy, in Adelaide, whilst Hector has recently touched down in Wellington for the second Test. 

We were lucky enough to catch up with the great Jack Meacher – one-half of the cricketing social media sensations, Cricket District. Having risen rapidly in the world of YouTube content creation, Jack has helped amass a following of close to 400,000. He has spent the last few years traveling the world, filming content with some of the best players to ever do it – including the likes of Ben Stokes, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Rashid Khan. 

Alongside debriefing the first Test between England and New Zealand, we chat to Jack about his progression through the ever-developing world of cricket YouTube, what it is like filming with the captain of England midway through an Ashes series, and the dynamic between mainstream and social media. 

Thanks as ever for listening! 

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Mantis!

Hang on what? Well, that is correct, just for today. Alas, our Ursine Landlord has been called away by family duties so your Episcopal Barman is flying solo serving drinks, mopping tables, changing barrels and with a broom firmly inserted to ensure the floor is swept as he goes.

Fortunately, he has for company former New Zealand captain, scorer of 174* against England in 1984 and general renaissance man, Jeremy Coney. What better guest could there be ahead of the fascinating series coming up between New Zealand and England?

Jeremy gives us the full run down on the seam attacks and what we might expect at the very seam friendly Hagley Oval where only once has a winning captain chosen to bat first. We celebrate the Black Cap’s extraordinary series win in India and ask what, if any, relevance that may have on the series and then meander down many other diversionary alleyways of discussion and discovery.

Do you know how many draws there have been from 40 Tests this year? Listen and find out and see if you agree with our summary of the new adrenaline and money fuelled fast forward cricket landscape and its impact on Test Match results.

Of course we also provide our predictions for the New Zealand vs England series before, for some reason, lurching off to lament the prominence of nasal hair in one’s more senior years. Which, as I’m sure you will agree, was about the right time to pull down the shutters of the Old B and B for the evening after what had been a fabulously entertaining hour.

Grab yourselves a drink and join us. We love having your company. By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord (in absentia) and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear!

England collapsed and lost the deciding Test to Pakistan in two and a half days. On the upside, your Episcopal Barman got a Sunday lie in he hadn’t been expecting, but that is really not a consolation for the meekness of the England collapse.

Pakistan looked across the border to India and said “forget our illustrious tradition of demon reverse swing. Wasim and Waqar - Who were they? Rawalpindi Express? Only the slow train for us now. Used wickets, rakes, big fans and most importantly a highly quality left arm and right arm spin duo is the way to go”. No English man had an answer to Noman. The sparkly eyes and twirly pantomime villain tache, not to mention camp celebrations of Sajid Khan bamboozled and battered shoddy English batting defences.

So much to unpick and our guest in the Bishop and Bear to help us do just that is young Billy Stevens. After your highly responsible Landlord had demanded to see proof of age of course. He may not have known that Billy Whizz was a famous Beano character, but with a Guinness in hand, the lad knows his cricket!

There’s more too. We celebrate the magnificent Kiwis in India with Santna Baby hurrying down the chimney three months early to leave a present of India’s first home series defeat since 2012. Guess who NZ play next in Tests. Yup, England!

Finally, as we switch from red ball to white, we chew over whether it will be a Caribbean Holiday or Death in Paradise of England’s experimental side.

Grab yourselves a rum punch and settle in to join us. We love having your company. By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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The warmest of welcomes back to the Bishop and Bear.

We’re delighted to get back together with you in the very short window of time allowed between the 1st and 2nd Multan Tests. And after records tumbled in the first, we now have all sorts of pitch shenanigans to discuss as it looks as though the 2nd Test will now be on the same pitch! And quelle surprise, on an old track being sundried and fan blown as we speak, Pakistan are packing their team full of spinners (mainly left arm and leg).

Our guest to review the first Test and look ahead with a sharply critical eye is our very own Tooting Trumpet and Mersey Mouth, Gary Naylor. Don’t expect one word answers, but do expect some cracking insights.

For good measure, we also find time to ask whether Australia can be beaten in the Women’s World T20, nod in passing to India’s humungous thumping of Bangladesh and even chew briefly on the gristle of packed cricket schedules.

Grab yourselves a drink and settle in to join us. We love having your company. By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to Hector and Henry’s World of Cricket!  

It is great to have you join us, and with the cricketing summer a thing of the past, it is vital that we can get our cricket fix from somewhere.   

Now of course, every England fixture, we are treated (either via our TV channels or even better, in the flesh), to the dulcet tones of the Barmy Army. Widely renowned as one of the most creative, loosest fan networks out there, the Barmy Army have sent shivers down many an Australians spine.  

Have you ever wondered how such an operation works? Whilst the group's main purpose is to incite crowds to get behind our national heroes, there is also a large amount of charity work, travel planning, and essentially business-running going on behind the scenes. We thought that it would be interesting for the listeners to get the inside scoop as to how such a successful organization is run.    

Who better to talk to than the die-hard fan, Rob Lewis, aka Randy Caddick. The man who stole our hearts way back in 2021, stood atop the fort of Galle to watch our team play in such desperate circumstances, belting Jerusalem out as Rooty made lightwork of tricky conditions. 

In this episode, we talk to Rob about his time in the Barmy Army (since recruitment in 2021), his future plans to get stuck in during the Ashes next year, as well as all the rogue news that recently has appeared in the world of cricket. And of course, his views on the slightly underwhelming English summer...  

We hope you enjoy this episode and please get involved in the donations section to keep us up and running! 

Thanks again for listening! 

 H and H 

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The warmest of welcomes back to the Bishop and Bear.

The English cricket summer is finally done, so late that Santa’s reindeer are already in pre-Christmas training. But if you think that means a short break for Guerilla Cricket, oh no, think again. England start a Test Series in Pakistan in just a few days’ time. 

To look back with the Bear and I to the summer gone and forward to that Pakistan series, our guest is comedian, BBC voice of Pakistan cricket, winner of the Live Stand Up Comedy Award at the 8th annual UK Enterprise Awards 2024, but most importantly a Guerilla Cricket alumni – Aatif Nawaz.

Not only do we reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly from the summer (Lords ticket prices for a start), we also find out what it’s like to get a lift off Jimmy Anderson, what car he has and indeed how many of them. And if you have some questions about ECB policies and decisions, just wait until we light Aatif’s blue touchpaper about the PCB. Safe to say, we well and truly poked that particular sleeping bear. Not our Bear of course, Heaven forfend!

We all seemed to agree that none of us expected much from the late, late Australia white ball show, but actually really enjoyed it and we even find time to reflect on Cricket’s Manchester City, aka Surrey and their Oval Invincible alter egos winning again. And poor old Somerset not winning. Three times.

And if you want to know why David Gower’s invitation for Aatif to go swimming in Pakistan turned out to be an empty promise, then you will find that answer here too.

It’s a lot of fun, so grab yourselves a drink and settle in to join us. We love having your company. By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear, cricket’s finest virtual pub.

An absolute smorgasbord of discussion topics this week, so your ursine landlord and episcopal barman needed to find someone of weight and forthright opinion to help navigate through them. And we did find one too. Who else, of course, but our own Hendo.

Delicately sipping a coffee liqueur or two , Hendo gets fully stuck in with us to cover all of the following and more besides:

·     The Sri Lanka series to date

·     A disappointing Sunday crowd for a great day of Test Cricket and what’s to be done?

·     The Lords Man of the Match Award

·     Breaking news about that award winner – Gus Atkinson

·     A look forward to the Oval Sri Lanka Test

·     The September return of the Kookaburra

·     Farhan Ahmed, WG Grace and Abraham Lincoln (and does the Bear know the connection between them?)

·     BMac as supreme ruler across formats and the impending Aussie white ball series

·     Bangladesh making history in Pakistan

Do grab yourselves a drink and settle in to join us for the chat. We love having your company.

By the way, if you want to help us keep our show on the road and great cricket coverage free across the internet, then do please consider supporting us through Patreon here. There are loads of great benefits as well as our undying gratitude of course.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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