The Ashes. That whole thing. We never know whether to use the word "it" (for the series) or "they" (for the plural Ashes). The Ash would also have worked back in 1882, as a compound noun. Anyway, the contest is over, a little shouting continues, and we have made it with you to the other side.
This is Week 1 of August on TFW Patreon. If you're new to the biz, we don't treat "per creation" as per episode, because that would get out of control, but per week of episodes, however many that m...
2023-08-02 16:41:37 +0000 UTC
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Manchester is done, The Oval is all that remains in the Ashes, after our seven-Test odyssey so far across the past two months. Maybe make that 11 Tests if you count the West Indies ones against India and the Sri Lanka ones against Pakistan that we've covered around the periphery. Good times comes to those who chase.
That also means we're into Week 4 of July, our last email before August.
Final Word Daily
Here are the Old Trafford shows: day 2023-07-25 12:14:41 +0000 UTC
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Week 3 of July might be close to our busiest week yet. Since the last update we've squeezed in the last three TFW Daily shows from an outstanding Women's Ashes series, a couple of updates from India in Dominica, a preview and the first day of the men's Test from Manchester, a regular TFW Weekly, a Story Time episode, and an interview with one of our heroes, Enid Bakewell.
We've also planned and announced the live show with Steven Finn in London on July 26. Tickets for that are mostly go...
2023-07-20 07:06:07 +0000 UTC
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Hello friends, welcome to Week 2 of July. Two days of breathing space before the first of three women's ODIs, while there's a week and a bit until the next men's Test. We've done six Tests and three T20s in the space of 39 days.
For context on how crammed this summer has been, ten years ago today was when Ashton Agar made his 98 at Trent Bridge... to start the first match of the series.
We've also had an incredible response to the show, with over half a million audio d...
2023-07-11 12:35:30 +0000 UTC
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Hello world. Just a quiet Week 1 of July, then, with an uneventful Lord's Test wrapping up? Honestly, it has been a very intense few days, and we are more grateful than ever to have all of you - a sensible and kind audience with plenty of people from Australia and the UK, having civil chats with each other online instead of gearing up for a brawl. Bless you all. TFW Discord has been a haven.
If you have sent a message to the DM inbox in the last couple of weeks, bear with us, we will ge...
2023-07-05 14:28:22 +0000 UTC
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Well, we did it. Plenty of you asked if there would be an episode from Adam's wedding, and there it is. Well timed at the earlier end of the reception, with plenty of old friends floating above London. Video is there ^, audio is here.
That was the best day of Week 4 of June.
How do cricket pitches w...
2023-06-30 22:21:45 +0000 UTC
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You all know what happened there. What a Week 3 that was on TFW. Recovered yet? Pretty sure the Day 5 show from Edbgaston is already our most listened-to Daily, and if not it will be shortly. The video is up top, the audio is here.
Image: Jim Maxwell and Alastair Cook.
Looking back at the Edgbaston mir...
2023-06-23 00:15:46 +0000 UTC
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It's happening. Week 2 of June on The Final Word is Ashes week, and we're in Birmingham about to go and meet Ali Martin at a Moseley watering hole after a long day preparing, previewing, and setting up.
He's on the weekly show this week too, talking the inside track on Moeen.
The first Ashes Daily just went up, too - video above, audio here. Start as you mean to go on, as we say. All the WTC ...
2023-06-15 16:56:45 +0000 UTC
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It's Wednesday. Right on time, as the WTC final unfolds in front of us at Kennington Oval after our first huge week in London.
The preview video with Adam and Bharat is at the top of this message, or the audio is here. We'll be in the groove with TFW Daily shows from the ground for the next few days.
That follows on from our Dailies from the Ireland Test at Lord's. They're all in your 2023-06-07 14:05:08 +0000 UTC
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Back where it all began, at least for us as an official duo in 2015. To celebrate we've already started doing Daily shows - up top is our preview for the Ireland Test. The audio version is here.
There are five Wednesdays in May, so that makes this a rare Week 5 for a Patreon email-out. If you were wondering how we mark out our days. Coffee spoons, too.
In 2019 we shot a little video in front of the...
2023-05-31 16:55:30 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes it's about having a conversation, more than an interview. That was our approach in Week 4 of May, sitting down at the old faithful Mario's cafe on Brunswick Street to speak with Gideon Haigh for Season 14, Episode 15. He'll be there in England for his seventh cricket tour, and he's been collecting his writings on the rivalry for a new book, On The Ashes. We'll start there but go a lot further afield, from 1877 to today, where the game is going, history, memory, crea...
2023-05-26 01:50:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi all, welcome to Week 3 of May which was another busy one for news and for the show.
Season 14, Episode 13: Cricket is getting rich, which means the BCCI is getting richer. Over the last week a huge yet unsurprising story broke that India's board is angling to take a huge share of ICC revenue for itself, putting one administration above everywhere else in the world. So what? Don't they bring in that cash? Well, it's never that simple. As senior editor of ESPNcri...
2023-05-19 10:22:14 +0000 UTC
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We've wanted to do this interview for a while. And with Ireland in the middle of a run of Test matches, and eyeing qualification for this year's World Cup, it's a good time for Season 14, Episode 11. Go back 20 years, and Irish cricket was a contradiction in terms. Now it's one of the game's success stories, rising to Full Member status and trying to grow in all directions. Lucky then that Andy Balbirnie isn't afraid of hard work. Since taking over as men's captain in 2019 he...
2023-05-11 12:01:25 +0000 UTC
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It's Week 1 of May, a month before Test season in England fires up, and time for another interview after Peter Handscomb last week - that's video version up top if you'd like a visual. This week we spent some time with an undersung great from an earlier era: Dennis Amiss.
When it comes to the second half of the 20th century, few figures had a bigger influence on English cricket. But those born in recent decades might not know much of him, as a player and a personality defined by u...
2023-05-04 08:03:51 +0000 UTC
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Yes, after taking the piss out of Sachin's social media for years, we decided it was time to tip our lids along with the rest of the cricket world when his birthday rolled around. And my word, are there a lot of stories. The run time for our show would equal about 33 seconds per Test match that he played, so we actually did very well to move through things as quickly as we did, with Bharat joining the two of us for some special Mumbai memories.
Thanks to listener Rahul Venkat for ...
2023-04-27 15:16:12 +0000 UTC
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In Week 3 of April, it's hard to pick out a lead given we made three shows that would each normally have been the Weekly, plus a Story Time. But the significance of the news that the IPL is likely to play ball with Saudi Arabia's attempts to duplicate its league is hard to overstate. At the top of the page you'll find Geoff's writing on the matter, published on Saturday after we had talked things through on Friday's show.
Also on Season 14, Episode 5, cricket farewelled...
2023-04-23 05:32:37 +0000 UTC
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Hello, it's Week 2 of April and we had a fun one, even with working our recording schedule around Adam's broadcasting in Hong Kong and Geoff's travel back to Melbourne for a brief quiet period before the English international summer.
If you can think of a more exciting name than what we came up with for our segment of reading out bad press releases, sing out.
Choose a career in marketing, where words mean literally nothing!
Season 14, Ep 2:
2023-04-16 07:27:46 +0000 UTC
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It's a new season of The Final Word. So we bought a castle to celebrate. Ok, we very briefly obtained partial use of a castle. You'll have to listen to the weekly show to figure out what we're on about. But here is the view.
Our self-appointed record keeper Michael Holden says that with all of the daily shows from a T20 World Cup through to the India series, Season 13 encompassed 124 episodes in 175 days. No wonder we're tired.
On to the next?
Season 14, Ep 1:<...
2023-04-06 16:23:36 +0000 UTC
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Our last Wednesday email for March, and with the Sheffield Shield final done, our last before we switch from southern hemisphere cricket season to northern.
We've been promising a big revisit special for a while, and we're confident that we delivered. It isn't often that we breach the two-hour barrier, but there was no choice with 18 numbers – a new record for a single ep. Hop in to learn about the all-round sporting brilliance of Harald Frei, a nagging seamer called Mad Jack, t...
2023-03-29 14:00:54 +0000 UTC
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Season 13, Ep 28: This week, the MCC gets swarmed by Eton and Harrow fans , and Emma John joins the show to help explain this especially English toff barney. Before we get to that, Australia is still playing in India, Sri Lanka get finished up in New Zealand, the WPL reaches its finals, Victoria stun Western Australia and Queensland in the Mr Sheffield Shield, Aleem Dar and Dane van Niekerk sign off, Nepal finish a crazy winning streak after Asif Khan's even crazier innings, ...
2023-03-23 19:07:59 +0000 UTC
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Season 13, Ep 27: And with that, it was done. Ahmedabad receded into the distance. Mumbai vanished into the night. Those weeks were left behind. So we turn out attention to Bangladesh, where the Tigers have just whitewashed world champions England in a T20 series, and friend of the show Mohammad Isam has been watching as always. Also this week, Temba Bavuma breaks through against Wes...
2023-03-16 08:45:29 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes you get the chance to do something special. We didn't even consider the possibilities inherent in this when preparing a Story Time for Adam and Geoff to record in someone else's hotel in Indore. But Bharat was there, and Daniel Norcross has arrived to do commentary on the second half of this series, and so all four people who have hosted Story Time more than once were in the same place at the same time. As was Brettig in a Box, and some other cameos.
This is Story Time...
2023-03-08 04:51:51 +0000 UTC
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Hello from Ahmedabad. First of all, yes, we are still very bad at sending out the Wednesday email on Wednesday. In fact this is the one from last Wednesday which is going out this Wednesday. Meaning we will need another one when the new weekly show is ready in the next few hours. Whoops.
But last Wednesday was the first day of the Indore Test, so perhaps you could forgive us being distracted. Someone called Matt Kuhnemann took 5 for 16. And it was just after a one-run win for New Zealan...
2023-03-06 20:00:35 +0000 UTC
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Two Tests down, two to go, and on the break between them Adam has made a dash back home to see his baby girls, while Geoff has gone to see Bharat's childhood home and meet his mother Usha in Mumbai. For a glimpse of said home, check out our TFW Daily video that we manged to record about Australia's win over India in the T20 World Cup semi-final, with Bharat's childhood best friend Venky behind the camera. The audio version is 2023-02-24 05:27:29 +0000 UTC
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More things afoot as we proceed through India. We're now in Delhi, where we've connected with the cricket-loving Indian comedian Sorabh Pant. He's kind of a big deal in these parts, you know? Millions of online followers and all that. And he's a cricket nut, and a fan of TFW.
So we're going to join forces for a live chat and a Q&A with people tonight from 6pm India time. Not a great timezone for the Australian east coast, apologies, but it was the only time we could make work. Decen...
2023-02-15 08:35:39 +0000 UTC
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Well, we're finally here. It has been a wild six days since we landed the day before the Nagpur Test and joined our excellent colleagues to throw ourselves into setting up two radio broadcasts in a stadium that had probably never hosted one before. Travel fatigue and sleep deprivation met the sensory overload of a subcontinent tour. We've also been exploring the night time venues of Nagpur and learning to cross Indian highways under the expert guidance of tour captain Bharat Sundaresan. ...
2023-02-13 08:01:07 +0000 UTC
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It's a Daniel Norcross week on The Final Word, joining Geoff for Story Time and Adam for the weekly show as our protagonists get ready for India. By this time next week, all going well, they'll be together in Nagpur. In the meantime...
Season 13, Ep 21: An episode that finishes on a conversation about the mistreatment of South African skipper Dane van Niekerk, who is being excluded from the T20 World Cup on home soil on the basis of arbitrary long-distance running requi...
2023-02-02 10:18:03 +0000 UTC
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Four matches across two countries and two years, and the Final Word XI remains unbeaten. That's not the main thing, but we can't help but be proud that a group of our listeners can join together, with no practice and not much cricketing pedigree, and produce a fine team effort not just once but each time so far. We spent a beautiful hot summer day generously hosted by the Newtown Browns at Birchgrove Oval by Sydney Harbour on Thursday, with the full match report to come after we talk about it...
2023-01-27 05:43:07 +0000 UTC
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First news first, Peggy has a middle name. For those who were waiting for the result, Peggy Amelia Collins is in. As it happens, Peggy Antonio's mum was named Bell Myra Edith Amelia Lubke. Draw your own conclusions.
About the little video up top, cricket whiz kid Cameron Ponsonby is now working with us with a brief that is as simple as: have some fun with what we're making. Another of the things we're only able to do thanks to Patreon.
Season 13, Ep 17: With...
2023-01-18 00:59:17 +0000 UTC
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Season 13, Ep 16: Ok, that's not really her middle name (yet) but we're working on it. The Final Word family has grown by one. Who knew when we told that great story about 1930s leg-spinner Peggy Antonio on Story Time 100 that Rachel and Adam would have a Peggy of their own? Well, they probably did, but it's a nice surprise for the rest of us. Also this week, squads for the next women's World Cup and the Australian men's India tour, farewell to Norma Whiteman as she was when ...
2023-01-13 01:54:47 +0000 UTC
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