It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, what is the worst bowl-first decision of all time? And what does it have to do with the Vengaboys and the bravest innings ever played near a giant fruit? Plus the byword for cricket arcania, the portrait that should grace the mantelpiece of Daniel Norcross, and some stories we can tell you about the Stories we can tell you. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 2.58 - Sam Brown 1008 - Alan Edgar 5.11 - Jeffrey Gabriel 4.50 - Simon Butcher & Andrew West 5.69 - Matt May 3.49 - Matt Near the Gabba Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket. Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 10 – Damien Fleming. By this stage on the re-release of The Greatest Season That Was series on the 1999 Men’s World Cup, we have revisited interviews with players and broadcasters who were front and centre from South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, England and India. But what about Australia? The story of their staggering semi-final tie was told earlier in the series, but their campaign to that point was already noteworthy. From teetering on the edge of elimination to an internal shake-up to a fateful night of ten-pin bowling, a man in the thick of things throughout was Damien Fleming. The ever-enthusiastic Australian quick takes us back 25 years, but to 1996 as well when they also snuck through the semi only to blow the big one. He explains in this conversation with Shannon Gill (Code Sports), Dan Brettig (The Age) and Adam Collins why history didn’t repeat when the men in the bright gold uniforms made it to Lord’s. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket. Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 16, Episode 5: Cricket got underway in England over the last week, with more rain than balls bowled but some bumper days of play nonetheless, not least the one in which Sam Northeast knocked together 335 at Lord's. Will Nathan Lyon's two overs count as a game played? The wait remains. In Australia, Nic Maddinson moves states again. There's a chaotic week of IPL, the Sri Lanka's women's team complete a historic series win in South Africa, Roberta Moretti steps down after seven years as captain of Brazil, and the world lost Papua New Guinea's finest bowler Kaia Arua. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 2.90 - Shaun Ton Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket. Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 16, Episode 3: Made in heaven, Michael Bevan. He was the very best at what he did - finishing 50-over run chases with the onboard computer scanning every option. But he was a lot more than that: a red-ball maestro, a Test spinner, the most prolific player to walk onto the Sydney Cricket Ground. We were lucky enough to spend our Sydney live show in January 2024 together, in an impressively honest conversation about a career's iconic highs, its great frustrations, and the personal lessons he had to learn to reconcile it all. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get a sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com 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, how did Learie Constantine become lord of his domain? Also, the remarkable tale of a pioneering New Zealander, an Adelaide mystery, a triumph that didn’t feel like one, and Geoff’s favourite of all time. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 1.97 - Tom Stewart 4.00 - Alex Brown 5.69 - Matt May 2.81 - Alex Crampton 3.07 - Andrew Beech Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 1, Ep 6: Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word. It's Season 1! At the end of Australia's 2015 tour of England, after the one-day series to follow the Ashes, it was great to be joined by our friends Jesse Hogan from the Fairfax papers and Stephan Shemilt from the BBC. At the top of the order - I can't stand it, I know you planned it - are there shenanigans afoot with Jason Roy and Alex Hales? Or will Moeen Ali get a Test job ahead of both? John Wayne Hastings was in the right place at the right time to make telling contributions with bat and ball. Plus we innocently speculate about Australia's ultimately cancelled Test tour of Bangladesh. This season was originally recorded for the ABC - this is the extended edition, restoring removed material. Send us a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find more episodes at finalwordcricket.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 16, Episode 2: If asking who has the most interesting story in world cricket right now, a leading candidates would be David Wiese. From the South African national team to England as a Kolpak, until Brexit put a stop to that. Then another door opened into the Namibian national team, getting the chance to represent a second country at multiple World Cups, showing his talent as a matchwinner on the global stage, then hitting the road as a freelancer in his late 30s in just about every T20 league going. His life is the subject of a new podcast series, Hitman for Hire, and he joined Adam (having just finished a T20 International against Oman!) to tell us how the merry-go-round feels to one riding it. Listen to David's podcast, Hitman for Hire, a fellow member of the Sports Social Podcast Network: https://podcast.sport-social.co.uk/podcast/hitman-for-hire-a-year-in-the-life-of-a-franchise-cricketer/ Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket. Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 16, Episode 1: After two Test caps and about a hundred tours on the bench, Michael Neser has lost his Australian contract and is way down the pecking order. Is it over for the hashtag man? Various South African players are actively dodging contracts, while Jason Gillespie has left South Australia and may be bound for Karachi. Also this week, it's a new season - the English county season will begin with nine matches on opening day. Nathan Lyon will play a reduced part after Cricket Australia clipped his wings. There will be plenty of attention on the use of spinners and the work of wicketkeepers. Bangladesh women struggle against Australia, as do New Zealand against England, but Papua New Guinea’s women had their biggest result. Plus our very tangled IPL wrap. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 39.70 - Jeremy Brown Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your 10% discount on top-notch kit from Serious Cricket. Use FINALWORD24 at checkout --> seriouscricket.co.uk Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steve Cannane - First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards That Made Them Steve Cannane has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and the ABC's senior foreign correspondent in Europe since 2021. But aside from his important work, his passion is cricket - for decades, he charged in every Saturday as an opening bowler. And it was with his club side, watching a teammate's unorthodox batting technique, where a question was planted: how much do the childhood backyards of players influence what we eventually see at the top level? The answer was a beautiful and much-loved book, First Tests. Originally published in 2009, but just as relevant now, we revisit these stories as Steve prepares to return to Australia. Appropriately, given how much he's loved hanging out in Soho while living in London, it was in a pub in the heart of town where Adam and Daniel Norcross recorded this most fulfilling interview. Get the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Tests-Australian-Cricketers-Backyards-ebook/dp/B004JHZ4ZQ Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com 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, disregard all fakes - this involves one of the fastest REAL centuries in first-class cricket. We hunt for a phantom spell via a bowling feat rarer than a double hat-trick, look at some less famed examples to more famed counterparts, and consider the adventures of the Channel Island Over-50s. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 3.63 - Slim Johns & Damian Sharry 4.00 - Alex Brown 6.04 - Lee Geldard 2.87 - Greg Sykes Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 9 – Lance Klusener. At the 1999 World Cup, Lance Klusener stole the show. During a golden era for South African one-day cricket, the Proteas men were meant to fulfil their destiny in England by holding up the trophy for the first time. Being seen as the best team in the world was heavily due to their left-handed brute, the man they called Zulu. Across a long conversation, Lance joined Shannon Gill, Dan Brettig and Adam Collins to tell this bittersweet story in his own words. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 31: It's the season finale! That's because the Mr Sheffield Shield is done, and we don't need to tell you who won. Also, Western Australia has locked in the first Test of the summer for the next six years, with CA getting the schedules done well in advance. Go West, life is peaceful there. Plus we'll have a women's Ashes Test at the MCG. In other news, we go local with Carlton's incredible premiership performance against South Melbourne, we go England with Alec Stewart to hand over the running of Surrey, we go to the grudge match with twin tons as Sri Lanka tour Bangladesh, we go through the women's game with Australia in Bangladesh and England in New Zealand, and we go global with the first edition of The Final Word IPL Weekly Wrap of the Bits We Could Be Bothered Watching! Exciting. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 8.64 - Dannish Babar Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greatest Season That Was, Episode 8 – with Tim Lane. You’ve heard from plenty of players as we’ve gone through this sensational tournament, like Alec Stewart, Geoff Allott and Andy Flower, as well as Harsha Bhogle who was documenting India's journey on telly. Australia also had a broadcaster throughout the seven weeks: Tim Lane. One of the finest all-round commentators the country has produced, back in ’99 Tim was behind the mic with BBC Test Match Special, simulcast into Australia via the ABC. We realised it would be essential to get his perspective and Dan Brettig did a fine job. We think you’ll find Tim a great counterpoint to the players. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com 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, not just one long-time rival but two storied combatants return to the show to lay down their challenges once again. But this time, we might just be their equals with a couple of rollicking tales. Also, one of our pledgers turns his hand to poetry, while another will learn the story of the Forrest Gump of cricket. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 20.83 Rob O'Neill 6.94 - Ramaswamy 4.56 - Jimit Raja 4.42 - Angus Digby Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 30: Tasmania's new stadium might depend on this weekend's state election, but with over 100,000 members for the new footy club, it'll be a tough promise to rescind. Meanwhile Queensland's government doesn't want to spend bulk cash on anything at all. Ellyse Perry is still the best, proving it in Bangalore's WPL title run, while Pak Bean and Imad Wasim literally lit up the Pakistan league. Cricket Aus bail on more Afghanistan fixtures, the Shield final is set up, and Jess Jonassen is a surprise omission from the Australian squad. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 3.45 - David Smith & Patrick Hargreaves Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 29: Across all of our Story Time episodes, a few names come up more than any others. One is Glenn Turner, the New Zealand opening bat who churned out runs from the 1960s to the 1980s. Highest percentage in an innings, carrying his bat, twin tons, a hundred hundreds, a thousand before the end of May? Check, check, keep checking. Beyond the numbers, Glenn is a storyteller with a life to draw from, travelling the world since his teenage years, taking on the establishment to change how players were treated, and winning over an Indian Air Force father-in-law along the way. With Geoff and Bharat at his kitchen table overlooking the lake in Wanaka, a special Final Word. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com 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, Daniel Norcross slips back into the co-host chair with Adam, and up Mt Kilimanjaro they trek - a world record fixture for unusual reasons. And why is the Big V superior to Perth? You'll find out right off the top. Later, the career of one of Australia's finest Test openers, and the international journey of a bowler who burned brightly but briefly. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 7.60 Joel Emonson 2158 - Ed Fowler 58.61 - Peter Brown 5.75 - Richie B Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com 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, Reggie from the wonderful Vic Hotel in Brunswick allows us to spend a long time on the full history of the daring left-hander with the walrus moustache. Also, a rare Pakistan appearance for an Ahmadi Muslim, a unique achievement in T20 International cricket, and one of the great leg-spinning performances amid one of the great leg-spinning stories - and no, it doesn't involve the initials SKW. We're back, baby. Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week: 161.00 - Reggie 8.89 - Bradley Waring 3.57 - Not That Tim Minchin 12.50 - Dane Hansted Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Donate to support our Edinburgh Marathon runners for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 15, Episode 28: The southern Test season is done, with Australia leaving New Zealand, while England are also leaving India. That doesn't mean that cricket stops in Zimbabwe, with the Mashonaland Eagles turning in one of the most unlikely scorecards against... Durham? Yes. Meanwhile, Shane Watson might just be the next coach of Pakistan. The Bangladesh-Sri Lanka grudge continues, Ireland might cancel their series against Australia, and the last Shield round begins. Your Nerd Pledge number this week: 7.44 - Nick Ibis Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get that sweet Nord VPN discount - nordvpn.com/tfw Sort your super with CBUS on their 40th birthday Run or donate to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon for the Lord's Taverners All links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Zealand v Australia, Christchurch Day 4: It was a final day as good as we could have hoped. A decisive strike early but a decisive miss to go with it. A partnership that built. Then a dramatic final sequence. New Zealand and Australia had a stunner, as the clouds rolled in and the afternoon darkened. Alex Carey was involved, Mitchell Marsh, Ben Sears, Glenn Phillips, and inevitably late in a chase, Pat Cummins. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find shirts, marathons and other links at linktr.ee/thefinalword Sort out your super with CBUS Super. cbussuper.com.au Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices