thefinalword posts
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And so we face the final curtain
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 ot...
Seven Tests down, one to go
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 come...
Hoping it doesn't rain on our Manchester
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...
The Final Word live in London (& discount code)
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 yea...
A gentle underarm at the stumps
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...
The Final Word Wedding Daily
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...
That whole Edgbaston thing
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 mi...
Here we go - The Ashes
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 Ash...
World Test Championship final is go
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 f...
The Final Word is back in the UK
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 wer...
The Final Word with Gideon Haigh
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 ...
The BCCI move for cricket's cash - with Osman Samiuddin
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 f...
Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie joins the show
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 th...
The Final Word with Dennis Amiss
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 Happy Birthday Sachin special
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 ...
The Saudi march on cricket
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 ...
The new anniversary milestone is... 12 years?
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 c...
All episodes should be recorded in castles
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 a...
Here comes the big one
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...
The many Prime Ministers of Eton are displeased
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 stu...
Departure through the Gateway of India
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 Isa...
Every Story Time host, everywhere, all at once
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 ha...
The truth about Happy Birthday Sachin
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 Wed...
From Delhi to Mumbai
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 Australi...
The Final Word live video stream tonight
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...
The Final Word has got to go to India
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 se...
Let Dane van Niekerk play
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 conversat...
The Mighty Dubs win again
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 ...
The Test Part II, with director Adrian Brown
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 w...
Welcome to Peggy Antonio Collins
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 proba...
