Season 16, Episode 15: Yes, we finally have our ad-free feed up and running, extra exciting in the same week as Adam claims to have watched The Greatest Round of County Cricket Ever. Wait for his documentary series on it in 10 years' time. Jofra Archer is tentatively back bowling snorters, there is civil unrest in Australian state cricket, and we f…

Season 16, Episode 14: After Australian cricket endured its worst moment in modern memory in 2018, the Sandpaper debacle, cameras were invited into the inner sanctum of the men’s dressing room for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Five years on, they have returned for a third installment during last year’s World Test Championship and the Ashes that fo…

Season 1, Ep 1: We're finally there! Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word, this is episode No1. London 2015, with our new Ashes podcast project not signed off in time to cover the first Test in Cardiff, we got started after the second Test at Lord's. Australia had been beaten badly in the first match, only to take the next when Mitchel…

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Did Paul Nixon pen his own Wikipedia entry? Daniel Norcross reports, you decide. Our co-host has been busy too, getting Paul Collingwood to help tell the story of his double century in a losing team in England's 2006 Adelaide debacle. Adam goes back to a memorable …

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, a long backtrack to a much earlier episode where we tried to unravel the mystery of carrying one's bat for nought not out. Enter a multitude of Hearnes. Also, the man they called Stork, a forgotten career of coincidences, Winnie Mae's birthday, Pip Clark…

Season 16, Episode 13: With the Jimmy farewell in the air, was it the right move or wrong? Should it have happened three years earlier, or one year later? Let's get into it. Also this week, Monty does a Mal Meninga, the ECB continue towards selling up, the ICC continue selling out to the worst people in sport, the Dutch keep being sold short, Irela…

Season 1, Ep 2: Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word, we're all the way back to our second episode ever. This came after Australia got shot out of the sky in Birmingham during the 2015 Ashes, for England to take a lead 2-1 with two matches to play. Geoff was joined by fellow writers Will Macpherson and Subash Jayaraman, with Adam absen…

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, with Daniel Norcross joining Geoff Lemon, we start with a walk through the Indian hill town of Ooty, then end up deep in the origins of European fascism. Yes, it's all related to the cricket. Also, the German influence on Lord's in 1994, the worst ever h…

We weren't expecting to record an ep today but the news of Jimmy Anderson's retirement announcement required it. At The Oval, Adam has an emotional Daniel Norcross with him to reflect on a truly magnificent international career. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get down to Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City…

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, with Adam and Geoff are back together, do you know how cricket relates to Ronald Ryan and to Malaysian capital punishment in the 1980s? Neither do we, but we got there somehow anyway. Also, a lot of time in the Imaginary City - Adelaide. Short runs, rain…

Season 16, Episode 12: Our 1000th episode! A serious number. From the 2015 Ashes to now so much has changed, but we’ve kept hitting record and talking to each other – in a week where Geoff has moved to Portugal and Adam has seen Peggy start to walk. Into the show itself, English cricket mourns the loss of young player Josh Baker. Australia’s decisi…

Season 1, Ep 3: Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word. This was the show's first engagement with women's cricket, and you can hear how much we've learned since. Down in Canterbury, amid a men's Test series of batting collapses, the only women's Test of their 2015 Ashes series ended similarly. It wasn't one-sided earlier though, with Aus…

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Bharat Sundaresan joins the show for what is coincidentally a great week to be an expert on West Indies teams meeting India. Famous uncles, less famous young nephews, and one of the most underrated batting greats of all. Join the dots on Story Time. Your…

Season 16, Episode 11: On this episode, as promised, we shift focus to Vanuatu. Specifically, to their extraordinary women’s team, currently in action at the T20 World Cup qualifier in Abu Dhabi. To be one step away from the World Cup with a side that barely existed until a decade ago is a story that, in a way, speaks for itself. Their rise was con…

Season 16, Episode 10: Just what is The 100 worth? It's a question that has vexed English cricket, on various levels, since it was first dreamed up some six years ago. Now, we are up to the inevitable moment for the controversial competition as it is prepared for a day at the market. Will Macpherson, from the Telegraph, joins as this week's co-host…

Season 16, Episode 9: It’s appropriate that this conversation with Greg James took place at The Oval, the ground he grew up visiting with his dad – the place where he developed an unbreakable bond with the game. He explains how he fell in and out of love with playing without ever really leaving. And how that’s turned into finding a place for it pro…

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Daniel Norcross is back with Adam for a second installment of their doubleheader, recorded beneath the Jardine portrait then later at the former England captain’s home ground. It’s an Australian skipper, Allan Border, who is celebrated for his secondary discipline …