Graham Gooch and quadruple tons

Getting us up to date, it has been another giant week in Final Word land. No bigger than someone who made 67,057 runs in the top flight. Talking to him could only be a show in its own right, and even then we could have taken another hour.

The Final Word with Graham Gooch

Season 12, Ep 19: More runs in professional cricket than anyone, more runs in a single Test than anyone, setter of dozens of England records. For 27 years Graham Gooch played first-class cricket, and he's stayed around the game ever since. On the anniversary of his magnum opus 333, he sits down with The Final Word at his spiritual home of the Essex County Ground to go through it all: starting against Lillee and Thomson, troughs and peaks, South African rebel tours, looking after twins, World Cup heartbreaks, and the drive to keep being better.

Video is above, audio is here.

A quadruple century is entirely too many centuries

Season 12, Ep 18: With Geoff out of action, Adam invited Vithushan Ethantharajah to his North London backyard to put the world to rights after Ravi Shastri's grim blueprint for Test cricket. There was celebration too after Sam's Northeast's stunning quadruple ton and a look ahead to cricket in the Commonwealth Games. Oh, and Nerd Pledge offers the perfect indie dancefloor / Pakistan Test cricket crossover for those who like that sort of thing.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:
4.58 - Fred Cowen

Audio is here.

Story Time 98 – Two wonders of Xenophon Balaskas

On this episode, the greatest Greek to swing a club since Heracles - and why he's connected to current Sri Lankan Kusal Mendis. A book gift that led us to a forgotten off-spinner, a wicketkeeper who outscored them all, a team that didn't score any, and an Ashes hat-trick that one of us naturally did not see.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
7.99 - Henry Branson
6.06 - Jake Cunliffe
2.42 - Lewis Tobia
5.23 - Susan Cain
10.40 - Rosie Piper
1.32 - Matthew Jones

Audio is here.

Right then. That's it for July. Now it's off to August and the Commonwealth Games...