The Halcyon Podcast

Allez les nuggets, it's time for France! Les Bleus are defending champions, which if you know your nuggets, isn't a very promising omen. However they have a fair old depth of squad and a long and storied history with the World Cup, so it promises to be an enjoyable ride whatever happens.

Rob, Adam and Richard discuss all that and more, welcoming a couple of new patrons to the Roger Milla last chance saloon and setting the 12th (12th!) question in our World Cup Nuggets quiz.

A reminder that World Cup Nuggets is OUT NOW and available to buy on the Halcyon website.

Next up in our Nuggets Daily podcast series is England, a team from whom much is expected at every tournament and who - depending on your relationship with the Nations League - HAVE started to deliver in recent years.

Adam, Rob and Richard pick over the chances of Gareth Southgate and his team, who begin with a group that isn't as easy as you might think, particularly given the national side's penchant for goalless draws. 

For the first time also welcome a colossally special guest to set our daily quiz question - the inimitable Pete Davies, renowned author of All Played Out talks to Ad.

We can also celebrate that actual physical copies of World Cup Nuggets 2022 are now available to buy (insert fanfare here), and you can do so at halcyonpublishing.co.uk.

World Cup Nuggets #10 is here and we're previewing Ecuador, a team who always give themselves a pretty good chance of getting out of their World Cup groups.

Adam, Rob and Richard share the first spelling-related Nugget of the World Cup and discuss the controversy surrounding 'La Tri''s qualifying campaign.

Richard also sets the tenth question of our World Cup quiz which Ad does VERY well not to give away almost immediately. Keep track of these, because if you submit the most correct answers at the end of the run you can win the entire Halcyon stable of books - and that is a very well populated stable at this moment in time.

It's World Cup Nuggets Daily Episode 9 and every European's second favourite team Denmark are next to be nuggeted.

Adam, Richard and Rob discuss the Danish Dynamite's habitual class and formidable qualifying record, halted only by a Scottish retribution 35 years in the making.

Richard sets our ninth (ninth!) quiz question, a real crowd-pleaser for aficionados of football merchandise and for anyone who wants to see Ad modelling the kit in a censored yet dignified manner at a later date.

Finalists at the 2018 World Cup Croatia are the focus of today's World Cup Nuggets Daily, which means Adam, Richard and Rob mostly swoon over Luka Modric gliding around the Roger Milla Last Chance Saloon, mineral water in hand.

We also assess their chances in Group F (very good), as well as their chances of returning to a second consecutive final (probably not quite as good, but not terrible) in 2022. And Richard sets a question about that most famous of Croatian chip-merchant, Davor Suker.

World Cup Nuggets Daily is back with all the facts and trivia about Costa Rica that you never knew you needed.

Adam, Richard and Rob fail to discuss the translation of Costa Rica's nickname, 'Los Ticos', as none of us know what it means (later Googling reveals that it's essentially a term for the Costa Rican people... who knows what terms they'll be using for us if this episode ever finds its way to them).

Despite finding themselves in the neutrals' favourite 'Group of Death' in this tournament, Costa Rica can at least find some hope in their performance in 2014, where they not only competed in a Group o'Death, but won it. More superlative trivia like that and our latest quiz question in today's daily nugget.

It's World Cup Nuggets Daily Episode 6 and that means it's the turn of questionable plurals 'The Maple Leafs' (or, as you and I might refer to them, Canada).

Adam, Rob and Richard discuss whether or not they're likely to break their World Cup goalscoring duck, their range of speedy talent and what a luxury it must be to have already qualified for the next tournament as well as this one.

Richard also sets the next questions in our Nuggets quiz, which is rapidly haring towards being a quarter complete. If you missed any of the questions, we'll be launching a blog post soon on which we'll update the questions each day. You still have to listen to the pod though.

Run to the corner flag and wiggle your ageing hips, it's Cameroon! Episode 5 of World Cup Nuggets Daily focuses on the Indomitable Lions, including the new Roger Milla, the old Roger Milla and how they're basically going to win the whole thing.

Just time too for another question in the World Cup Nuggets quiz - submit your answers at the end of the run of podcasts for a chance to win the WHOLE Halcyon back catalogue, which is a thing of beauty indeed.

Episode 4 of World Cup Nuggets Daily tackles the big dogs - Brazil! Most successful World Cup team ever, very strong squad, but, surprisingly, not as many wins in recent history as you might think.

Adam, Rob and Richard chew over this and more nuggets about the Seleção and Richard sets the next question in our World Cup quiz - you can see the prospective list of prizes on the Halcyon website, maybe while you're online desperately trawling Google for some of the answers. Good luck and see you tomorrow!

Another day, another nugget, and this time it's Belgium, the World Cup's 'inverted commas' team - a 'Golden Generation', perennial 'nearly men', could 'win' but also 'might not'.

Richard, Adam and Rob discuss more nuggets around the Red Devils' tournament history, squad and prospects, Ad comes over very profound indeed and we set the next question in the Nuggets World Cup quiz, for which the price is a princely collection of all the titles from the Halcyon Publishing stable.