Here is perhaps the greatest tale we have yet told on Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener challenges. Get ready to learn about the disco to end all discos, and a grand plan for next year. We'll feature the hottest vigil, some cryptic clippers, the longest gun in the West, the best in women's Tests, more mathematics clues that we're not qualified to solve, another trip to 1930s India, the sunniest day for Northamptonshire, and a visit with our old friend SE Marsh. Your new Nerd Pledge numbers: 2.99 – Rob Taylor 2.85 – Debashish Biswas 3.37 – Martin Blackburn & Alex Veljanovski 1.13 – Matthew Jones 3.25 – Bruce Walker 2.36 – Mike Lea 1.48 – Duncan Davies, Sebastian Greers & Sam Ashworth Plus revisits and confirmations. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com CBUS Super is at cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 9, Ep 24: At least one England cricketer came back from India with reputation enhanced: Mark Butcher, who was noticed for an excellent couple of Tests behind the microphone. His life before commentary included 71 Test matches, with a series of dramatic highs and drastic falls. Beyond cricket, he's a musician, a considered thinker, and someone who believes in the moral obligation to speak up for others. On The Final Word this week, a long conversation with Mark about life, family, and the wider world. Before that, our usual round-up of the cricket week. Your Nerd Pledge numbers: 6.40 – Anthony Osborn 6.20 – Michael Fitzgerald 46.55 – Fran Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Get a discount Wisden Cricket Monthly subscription at bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today we'll visit a walk-up start for the Clem Hill Defenestration Club, one Charlie Parker. Go via the president of the Internet Cricket Club, as it was in the beginning. Check the weather conditions on Kunanyi. Do a medical check on the Boer War, while finding another totally different club that Clem was part of. And track down a 140-year-old coincidence. Your new Nerd Pledge numbers: 7.37 – Liam Dalton 2.14 – Paul Reeve & Anny Forsyth 6.96 – Edward Edgecumbe 5.68 – Cameron 2.04 – Chris Dobbins 2.97 – Panos, Paul Davenport & Alex Crampton Plus some revisits and confirmations, while others have been held to next week. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com CBUS Super is at cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 3 of the Fourth Test at Ahmedabad – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 2 of the Fourth Test at Ahmedabad – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 1 of the Fourth Test at Ahmedabad – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 9, Ep 23: NSW win the 50-over comp every bloody year, but just for a moment the Breakers are fifth. Enjoy the novelty. This week we go back and forth over the Tasman for a range of formats, with some Shield corkers and some T20 madness, some men's games and some women's, some England and New Zealand and India and Australia, as well a detour to Abu Dhabi for Afghanistan and Zimbabwe and their future on free to air. What else? Javed Miandad’s I ❤️ NY hat, Keith Miller's trip to the opera, and of course our old mate Charles Bannerman and those he inspires. It’s another sprawling weekly episode of The Final Word. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 2.11 – Rahul V 2.67 – Daniel Dabney 7.60 – Stewart Beamont Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com Message from anywhere on earth with your ZOLEO, at zoleo.com Check out CBUS Super at   https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword Get Geoff’s new book, The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: Rob Quiney, healer of seagulls, was there anything he couldn't do? How are 229 and 257 the first and second record holders in two completely different categories? What kind of player took completism to unrivalled levels? Plenty of Tony Greig, for some reason, and Percy Holmes, for others. The most fun you can have at the Brabourne Stadium for 17 days. And why, why, how, do some teams possibly get first-class status? Plus some very important Winnie news off the top. Your new Nerd Pledge numbers: 4.22 – Richard Jones & David Smith 2.50 – Maureen McCord 4.54 – Jack Firth & Ian Bounds 1.47 – Geoff Price 2.77 – Billy Frendo & Rory Seymour 2.42 – Pushkar Godbole 2.16 – Samuel Therkelsen & Jayaprakash Plus plenty more revisits and confirmations. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Check out the Lord's Taverners programs to help kids at lordstaverners.org CBUS Super is at cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 2 of the Third Test at Ahmedabad – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 1 of the Third Test at Ahmedabad – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. England won the toss, elected to bat, and that’s about as good as it got. India’s spinners once again dominated, with Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin doing the work between them, and only Zak Crawley making a score. Then it was over to Rohit Sharma, who continued his high-scoring form while Jack Leach took a couple of wickets. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 9, Ep 22: A busy cricket week, aside from the final match in the Yarra Pub Cricket Association for the storied DOCCC (est. 2007). We also look at the mess of messaging from England around resting players that stitched up Moeen Ali, the lead-up to two simultaneous tours of New Zealand, a couple of remarkable results in the Sheffield Shield, a bit of Nerd Pledge and the latest from our Bannerman search, then TFW favourite Bharat Sundaresan joins the show to explain some of the confusing bits about the IPL auction. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 7.67 – Trev from Perth 3.16 – Brad Todd 1.41 – Tim Jones Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Get a discount Wisden Cricket Monthly subscription at bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by Urthboy Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's time for some spicy group action, on our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener number challenges. This week we have the Jones-Off of '88, a bunch of Test dads, the 10-day match and how close it came to a win, how far Belinda Clark was ahead of her time, the cumulative size of various Peters, the most delightful day out for a recent guest, and what show would be complete without Our Father Vinoo and a selection of Nawabs? Your Nerd Pledge numbers are: 1.26 - Anirban Gupta-Nigam 3.42 - Declan Lawlor & Bernhard Sayer 2.31 - Alan Edgar, Brian Strain & Steve Lofthouse 1.16 - Chris Jones, Dane Hanstead & datGriffin 2.19 - Keiron Costello, Scott Lamprecht, Nick Tewson & Reg Wilson 2.29 - Michael Gormley & Mike Dunn Plus revisits and confirmations from previous contributors. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find all our episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Pick up The Golden Summer with a £3 discount with the code GOLDTFW  Or get a discount Wisden Cricket Monthly subscription at bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 9, Ep 21: Now the dust has settled in Chennai, we try to strip the parochial from the practical on the broader subject of pitch preparation, and figure out what the various positions of argument are actually about. Also this week some Glenn Maxwell time, a bit of West Indies and Ireland, more stories from our Bannerman Search, then a great chat with Angela Pippos about her new documentary The Record, about the Women's T20 World Cup final at the MCG. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week are: 1.77 – Joel Emonsen 5.04 – Stuart Akers 1.83 – Rituraj Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Message from anywhere on earth with your ZOLEO, at zoleo.com  Check out CBUS Super at   https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The game is afoot! Our long-time quarry Rob O'Neill is back with another twisting, turning number designed to push Geoff to the brink of madness. Will Prisoner 24601 succeed? This is our weekly walk through cricket history via the method of Nerd Pledge quiz. Your new Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 3.27 – Jeremy Nash 2.05 – Kieran Barns-Jenkins 5.18 – John Pheby 1.05 – Thomas Melia 4.90 – Simon Ward 2.54 – Max Gillespie & Lachlan McKirdy 10.33 – Grant Cartledge 5.22 – Mary Stevens 2.23 – Joe Wozniczka-Wells Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Help out the Lord’s Taverners in 2021: www.lordstaverners.org  Check out CBUS Super at   https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 9, Ep 20: Featuring Damien Fleming, Dermott Brereton, and Adam White in guest spots, this week's episode comes direct from the Media XI cricket match against the MCC. In the spirit of our accidental Aussie Rules tangents, the match also featured Nick Riewoldt, Brendon Goddard and Daniel Harford. On the show: the West Indies miracle starring Kyle Mayers, the increasing fallout from Australia cancelling on South Africa, medals for Beth Mooney and Steve Smith, domestic cricket ahoy, our wrap of the Big Bash, and a welcome return to Happy Birthday Sachin after a couple of months with attention elsewhere. An episode that was a lot of fun, recorded in a lovely location. Couldn't ask for more. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com Check out CBUS Super at   https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword  Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 3 of the First Test at Chennai – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener number challenges. In a compact episode with some revisits left to future eps, we'll find out many relations or people with the same first names can pop up in one show. There's a very important moment registered on Old Father Time, a number that definitely needs to get bigger, the finest hour of a rhyming individual, and some queries on alternative timelines spiralling off our space-time continuum. Set your watches. Your Nerd Pledge numbers are: 2.15 – Simon Dolding 4.09 – Sam Littlejohn 3.39 – Fred Cowen 3.05 – Harry Woolley 2.39 – Harry Chalkley & Nick Garner Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword  Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Pick up The Golden Summer with a £3 discount with the code GOLDTFW  Or get a discount Wisden Cricket Monthly subscription at bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Get Geoff’s new book The Comeback Summer  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network  Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 2 of the First Test at Chennai – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day 1 of the First Test at Chennai – The Final Word Daily with Adam Collins and Geoff Lemon will wrap up each day’s action, decide the Player of the Day, and sort the nominations for the Final Word Hall of Fame, all throughout the four Test matches for the coveted Anthony de Mello Trophy. For a discount on a digital subscription for Wisden Cricket Monthly, the magic key is bit.ly/wcmtfw. Check out CBUS Super at https://www.cbussuper.com.au/thefinalword   Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  The Final Word is part of the  Bad Producer Podcast Network Title track by  Urthboy  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalword See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.