Hello and welcome back to the Bishop and Bear. Now who do you think of when you think about a hard man? Vinny Jones, Norman Hunter? Mike Tyson? Nigel Walker?

Well, it’s none of those that we are discussing in the old B&B today. We want to focus on Cricket’s Hard Men – the Toughest Characters from the History of Cricket and our guest on the barstool of bravado is Richard Sydenham, sports journalist and author of a book which is all about that very subject – Cricket’s Hard Men. 

So, what actually constitutes a hard man of cricket? The truth is there is no simple definition. Whether it's resilience to defy injury from players like Kepler Wessels, Mike Atherton and Allan Border; sheer physicality from cricketer turned cage fighter Adam Hollioake; the bloody-mindedness to snub tradition by Douglas Jardine and John Reid; a chest-thumping need from Arjuna Ranatunga to show pride for a flag that had a reputation of being soft in the cricket world; or the blind courage of Brian Close, each player has his own unique story.

Cricket’s Hard Men is a cricket book with a difference, not focused on runs, wickets and averages but on the characters who have excelled in the challenging environment of professional cricket, through the generations. Richard has picked 22 of them and mad a very good case for their inclusion. Here is the full 22:

Mohinder Armanath, Michael Atherton, Eddie Barlow, Allan Border, Brian Close, Brian Davidson, John Edrich, Andy Flower, Roy Fredericks, Adam Hollioake, Douglas Jardine, Javed Miandad, Anil Kumble, Bruce Laird, Dennis Lillee, Arjuna Runatunga, John Reid, Viv Richards, Graeme Smith, Steve Waugh, Kepler Wessels and Peter Willey.

But who is the ultimate Hard Man of Cricket? Listen here to find out who we think and let us know who would make your cut!

You can find the book here But of course, other retailers are available.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear.

If you fancy a cracking night out, plenty to eat and drink, plus the chance to play some cricket and even face some of the world’s best bowlers, there is a bar you can go to. It’s called Sixes. If you are in the UK, you probably already know it. If you are in the USA, you soon will as they are have already opened in Dallas and will be opening more there too.

At Guerilla Cricket, the social side of cricket is central to what we do. It’s the philosophy of our guest today too. Andy Waugh is the co - founder of Sixes Social Cricket and shares with us the story of Sixes, and tells us about some of their backers and fans which include the likes of Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and others. How did a Scotsman who never played cricket, end up creating a chain of social cricket experience bars? You are in the right place to find out.

Andy seemed to feel straight at home in the Bishop and Bear and the conversation quickly turned to how social cricket and Sixes is a perfect opportunity to help people find their way to the game. Our thoughts also turn of course to the World T20 and the run fuelled IPL amongst other things.

It’s a lively chat, so do have a listen and let us know what you think.

And, if you haven’t tried Sixes yet. Get down to one and give it a go. We are planning a Guerilla night in one very soon.

Do enjoy the chat and see you again soon in the Bishop and Bear.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear and today we have a real treat.

Many cricket supporters will have recently heard a resounding thud on their door mat (or more likely a tiny tap on the door followed by the rapidly retreating footsteps of an Amazon delivery driver) – because last week saw the launch of the 161st edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack!

Quite a year it’s been for cricket on and off the field and in its 1,552 pages The Wisden Cricketers Almanack captures and comments on much of it. Our own Gary Naylor has contributed 0.097% of those pages. How on earth, did they get him to be so brief?

We think it’s editor, Lawrence Booth, deserves a very large drink. And as luck would have it, he’s in our pub today.

If you thought the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack was just a coffee table thud book for cricket tragics (which ok, we know we are), you would be wrong. This year it puts forward some very forthright views on everything from the distribution of wealth in the game, equality and diversity and the spirit of cricket, as well as some great pieces by the likes of Mike Brearley (on the psychology of BazBall), a celebration of Stewart Broad and the impact of January 28th (Super Sunday). Plus of course, the Wisden cricketers of the year and so much more too.

It's a rich read indeed. And hopefully a great listen too as we chat to Lawrence.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

PS you can buy the 161st Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack at all good bookstores as they say. But of course, this is one of them.

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear.

Most guests in this pub would probably agree that they want cricket to grow and be healthy. They want it to be more diverse, inclusive and attractive to new younger fans. They also, want to watch national teams to play entertaining winning Test cricket and be successful in other formats too. For many of us, that is England. But by no means exclusively. Those of us that follow English counties want them to entertain us a play great cricket and, ideally, win things.

And yet, in a theme we constantly return to in the B and B, for English cricket, the lure of money and the proliferation of franchises sets traditionalists against modernists, romantics against pragmatists. Even your ursine Landlord and episcopal barman, feel a little, well dirty, frankly as we cover the IPL.

Our guest today on the Barstool of Bravado, is Ben Bloom, who spent last summer travelling the country speaking to more than 100 of the game’s most important figures for his book – Batting for Time: The Fight to Keep English Cricket Alive. The concern and discontent he uncovered from all quarters was palpable and left him concluding that English cricket is in crisis.

It gets brilliantly under the skin of English cricket, giving a fair voice to those who represent all sides of the argument, including many of those we know as friends, not least Annie of course.

It’s a great chat with Ben, so do have a listen. And we can thoroughly recommend the book, available, as they say, from all good booksellers, including here.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the warm embrace (and warm beer) of the Bishop and Bear.

The chat this week is very much focused on the IPL as this year’s marathon begins. Who are the runners and riders? Where is the smart money going? Who are the stars and who is missing for each team? What makes the new smart replays smarter than the average replays? Why do Sunrisers Hyderabad get battered everywhere? Is their website still a UX disaster? (Don’t bother looking - it is I can assure you). Who is Jake Fraser McGurk and what happened to the monkey that bit him?

To answer these and so many other questions, we have our own ‘Oracle of the Odds’ and IPL aficionado Andy Ward. Andy is going to be steering our weekly IPL coverage and he seems to be limbering up in fine form, albeit with a Guinness Zero.

We even make time to debate the morals of Australia’s Afghan withdrawal and ponder why no one is mad about the Roy.

Here is our very loose running order:

·     IPL 2024

-      What’s new for 2024?

o  Bouncers

o  Smart replays

-      Guerilla Tips – where is our money for this year?

·     Australia pull out of Afghanistan Mens T20 – A fair stance or looking for an excuse?

·     Why is no one mad about the Roy?

·     A decent start for England’s Women vs NZ despite missing some WPL starts

·     Our IPL Coverage – what to expect

Thanks, as ever for your company. Do let us know what you think and join us for our weekly show.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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A warm welcome once more to the Bishop and Bear.

A fabulous if ultimately unsuccessful Test series for England is behind us, but there is plenty to reflect upon. The IPL stretches out before us. No less than 66 days of, well pretty much the same as last year, but it will be fun.

As we look back to that enthralling Test series in India, we have two guests propping up our bar to cogitate on that and much more besides. Anindya has been busy penning his thoughts on whether or not India saw the death of Bazball as a strategy. If you haven’t read “Death of a Strategy? The Curious Case of 'Bazball' in India” then we can heartily recommend it. You can find it here.

We also welcome the late Sagir Parkar. Not “late as in in the late Dentarthurdent”, but apparently detained on his way to the pub by a traffic accident.

He picks up the pace of conversation like a pro though.

It’s a lively chat I can assure you we answer many questions as we go including:

·     Was Baz ball battered?

·     England’s dilemmas

o  One attitude – flexible approach?

o  Making way for Brook?

o  Duckett’ technique (and his dog)?

o  Leach – should he stay or should he go?

·     Will the Jazz Whale stay in tune wherever he plays?

·     Jimmy 700 – For a fast bowler a record that will never be beaten?

·     New Zealand against Australia – Is it a mental thing?

·     Fire up the clown car – who wants tickets to the IPL circus?

Whether you agree with any of the answers is of course, entirely up to you, but do get in touch and let us know.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Sæll og velkominn til Biskups og Björn

I’m not sure you can ever fully trust Google Translate, but that should be Icelandic for “Hello and welcome to the Bishop and Bear”. If you happen to speak fluent Icelandic and it accidentally says something else, I can only apologise. Blame the landlord not the barman.

There is a reason we have gone full Icelandic though. Our guest on the Barstool of Bravado this week is Kit Harris. Not only assistant editor of Wisden but also author the extraordinary “From Lords to the Fjords – The Saga of Icelandic Cricket”.

From Lord’s to the Fjords is the uproarious tale of cricket in Iceland: how the national press believed a stag party from Oxford were the official England team, how Sky Sports accidentally sent a crew to televise an Icelandic Cricket Cup final that didn’t exist, how the lead singer of Iron Maiden flew a passenger jet into a match under the midnight sun, how Henry Blofeld umpired in a blizzard on top of an ice cap, how the Iceland team was sold to the world’s public and became a viral Twitter sensation (incurring the wrath of Jofra Archer), how an Icelandic ‘mystery spinner’ signed for an Indian Premier League team, how the Iceland team fulfilled their dreams by playing their first international match – and how historical evidence proves that the Vikings were absolutely, definitely playing cricket in the tenth century.

It's a fantastic read so we’ve included a below where you can avail yourself of it.

Don’t worry there’s plenty of other cricket chat too as we cast an eye over events in India, discuss how to engineer more playing time for young spin bowlers, lament the frustrations that seem to surround Ollie Robinson and even look ahead to what’s coming up in The Wisden 2024 Almanac published in April.

Here’s that link we promised for “From Lords to the Fjords”.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear – the internet’s favourite virtual cricket pub (probably).

Well, it was a right old battering for England in Rajkot. The young Jazz Whale played all the right notes in exactly the right order and there were way too many bum notes from England against Bumrah and co. The Yorkshire middle order of Root and Bairstow looks under pressure and out of sorts. Can they battle their way back into some form in Ranchi? Ben Stokes thinks the pitch there looks “interesting very interesting” to appropriate the words of the great Barry Davies.

Our guest this week is the ever-erudite Forthy, who joins your ursine landlord and episcopal barman to ask and attempt to answer some of the questions vexing England’s management. If indeed they ever do get vexed, which at least to external eyes they seem not too. We also celebrate the power of Indian run scoring and dig a bit behind Jay Shah’s comments that Indian players shouldn’t prioritise the IPL over domestic cricket.

Here is a rough idea of the topics we chat and drink our way through:

Settle in, enjoy your drink and do please get in touch and let us know what you think.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Once again, a very warm welcome to the Bishop and Bear. We’re enjoying a little bit of breathing space between the 2nd and 3rd India Tests and the England team are enjoying themselves too with golf and family time in Abu Dhabi. Not Rehan Ahmed though. The lad thinks golf is for old men and he’ll be catching up with a Turkish TV series about the Ottoman Empire instead.

Our guest this week is no stranger to the bar in the old Bishop and Bear. She has a stool and pint glass with her name on it. It’s the one and only St Annie, county cricket natterer and matterer supreme. And there is so much to talk about, starting with the dismissal, or rather non-dismissal, that has had our Guerilla WhatsApp group in a lather of excessively verbose opinion.

So here are the things we meander our way through with plenty of detours en route.

·     Neil Brand – out or not out?

·     Visakhapatnam Test

o  20’s and 30s don’t win you Tests (Alastair Cook)

o  Blowing the Jazz Whale’s trumpet

o  Brilliant Bumrah

o  Jimmy Jimmy

o  Can Shoaib, Tom and Rehan learn fast enough to haul England back in front?

o  Is Joe Root trying too hard to Bazz?

o  Runs in Rajkot

o  Changes for Third Test?

·     South Africa C getting what CSA deserve in New Zealand?

·     U19 World Cup – India and Aus into the final

·     County Cricket Matters – What’s coming up?

Settle in, enjoy your drink and do please get in touch and let us know what you think.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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Get your Kicks in the Bishop and Bear 66! With due deference to Bobby Troupe who wrote Route 66 (and not a lot of people know that), perhaps not even Joe Root who wears 66 on the back of his shirt of course.

What a week for Test Cricket, culminating in its own Super Sunday. Two incredible Tests, two extraordinary results. Three heroes in the form of Shamar Joseph, Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley. The latter, we think, bears an uncanny resemblance to the great Hedly Verity. Google some pictures and see what you think.

It really was riches indeed for Test cricket fans and on our Barstools of Bravado, your ursine landlord and episcopal barman are joined by two passionate and knowledgeable guests. Aryan Surana, our resident Guerilla news hound and the irrepressible David Brook, represent India and the West Indies, but take a refreshingly non-partisan view of events.

Fortified with rum and coffee, we dive not just into the two matches, but more importantly perhaps, the statement they have made in the context of challenges faced by Test Cricket generally. And we answer important questions like “How far is it from Old Trafford to Hyderabad? Just what was did the Windies put in Shamar’s magic toe spray? And exactly how should we pronounce Visakhapatnam”?

For good measure, we tackle KP’s tweet asking for people’s opinions on the balance of T20’s and Tests, so grab yourself a drink at the bar and settle in to enjoy the chat.

Cheers!

Your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman

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