The Final Word Cricket Podcast

England v Ireland, Lord's Day 3: The Irish had some real fun at last. The match is over in three days but not before Mark Adair and Andy McBrine got to have one of their more enjoyable days with the bat, as the sun shone munificently on a lovely Lord's Saturday. Sometimes cricket just makes you feel good, and this was one of those days. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

England v Ireland, Lord's Day 2: Catch your breath after that one. More than 350 runs in two sessions of batting, most of them off the blades of two players, each of whom set a record in his own way. Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett had a carnival at Lord's on day two of the Test.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

England v Ireland, Lord's Day 1: With very little surprise, we announce that it was a Stuart Broad Day. Not that the Irish didn't show some resistance, especially at the top with McCollum v McCullum. Then it was time for a light dusting of Baz things and a Rorshach Test innings from Zak Crawley. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 14, Episode 17: Running the ECB is one of the toughest gigs in cricket and one that Richard Gould signed up for when returning to the game this year. With a long history as CEO at Somerset and Surrey, he knows the terrain as well as anyone. But the challenges he's inherited - at home finding a resolution to the ongoing debate around The Hundred, or on the international stage with Indian capital dominating the sport in ways unimaginable 15 years ago - he's got his work cut out for him. We had the better part of an hour to speak with Richard at ECB headquarters at Lord's.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

England v Ireland, Lord's Test 2023: It's almost upon us. The one-off Test at Lord's will repeat the fixture played before the Ashes of 2019, with Andrew Balbirnie's team ready to tackle England fresh off his interview with The Final Word a few weeks ago. We have a new sponsor, and the ground signage is getting very creepy. Eight Test matches in eight weeks begins... now. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comTitle track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 14, Episode 16: Geoff has landed in London and he's straight to Lord's to join Adam, who has just returned from Edinburgh where The Final Word runners did a brilliant job over the long weekend - on and off the track. When the conversation moves to cricket, Bharat jumps on to explain how the Dhoni Touch keeps touching after another CSK triumph at the IPL. There's Test cricket at HQ this week with Ireland in town so we check in with a couple of their stars, and the WTC Final is just around the corner, which brings its own hype. Our biggest summer yet has officially begun.Your Nerd Pledge this week:3.11 - Max GillespieSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, a chance diversion takes us to Dr Erica Larson's work on insects. Adam's childhood dreams of Bob Cowper are realised, three times over, while Andy Whittall keeps bobbing up as well. Eddie Barlow pulls a cool trick, Wisden is scathing about some timid New Zealanders, and we confirm that Harold Larwood did not in fact bowl at 564 miles per hour.Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:210.15 - Rob O'Neill3.07 - Martin Lawrence7.94 - Eranda Jayawickreme2.35 - Nick Tewson7.00 - Matt Gaynor & John Lansdell2.01 - Ian WolstenhomeRevisits8.16 - Ramaswamy4.63 - Tim Andrews3.17 - Nick DempseySupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 14, Episode 15: Ahead of his seventh tour to England, Gideon Haigh has been collecting his writings on the rivalry for a new book, On The Ashes. It's a good time to sit down in Melbourne with one of cricket's most respected thinkers and look over everything, from 1877 to today, and wonder where the game is going next.Gideon's book is out on June 6: pre-orders are through Allen & Unwin here.Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 14, Episode 14: Another week, another Ashes bowler in trouble: Josh Hazlewood only has "side soreness" according to CA, but we know how that has panned out for him lately. In the meantime, Michael Neser continues to do everything he could do in county cricket to fill that berth. And there's Ollie Robinson for England, in a moon boot after another bag of wickets. Will anyone be fit come June? Also this week, Dr Tom Brown joins the show to talk about his program to promote British Asian cricketers, Jodie Hicks wins a gong, CA get involved with the Voice to Parliament campaign, Mackay gets a cricket ground upgrade, and there's plenty of ridiculousness in the County Champs.Your Nerd Pledge this week:2.10 - Hugh McNaughtanSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Geoff and Bharat put their Serious Historian hats on to go trawling through Victorian public records from the 1800s. There's a literal giant of the sport who had a lasting influence on Association football, an Australian spinner who played at the top level with the oval ball, and a Victorian visit to Gloucestershire. And as ever, a lot of love for Clarence Victor Grimmett.Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:3.39 - Pat Rodgers7.60 - Richard Jansz-Moore10.00 - Chris Byrne3.57 - Alan Simpson & Paul Harmer2.16 - Matt Cuttress & Duncan Davies2.05 - Simon TraffordRevisits1.36 - Alex Brown2.08 - Sam AshworthSupport the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalwordFind previous episodes at finalwordcricket.comHelp our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup.Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices