Test Match Special - No Balls: County Cup glory & spin bowling 101

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Alex Hartley & Kate Cross talk about Crossy winning the FIRST EVER Women's County Cup with Lancashire Thunder, her send-off when she bowled Kira Chathli, and they react to England's T20 clean sweep of West Indies. Plus, Alex gives a spin bowling masterclass.Email us at: [e-mail]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge, perfect for the ultimate defender, the high-performance Defender Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. With Wise, you can send, spend, and receive up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Plus, Wise won't add hidden fees to your transfer. Whether you're buying souvenirs with pesos in Puerto Vallata or sending euros to a loved one in Paris, you know

you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and Cs and Cs apply. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Al, we've got to issue a swear warning because you, are an absolute potty mouth. Not another one. And you need to remember that your grandma listens to this. She does. She also abuses me on social media.

But don't worry, we beep it out. See your kids can listen. And Grandma Jean. Cross. I'm doing rounder wicket. Oh, that's... Boulder. Boulder, leaving a ball alone, Litchfield.

I think it's the wobble ball. And it just nips back. It jags back. It's the nipbacker. That is a beauty from Kate Cross. An absolute seed. That is a beauty from Cross. Hello and welcome back to No Balls and Cricket Podcast with me Kate Cross and you Alex Hartley

and we didn't fuck it up because I did it. Well, we have been on this call for 24 minutes and we've finally, finally got started. But welcome back, second week in a row. What's wrong with us? We've also meant to have done this podcast four times over the last 24 hours but for various reasons, mostly me being on tour and also forgetting all my podcast equipment we haven't done it and then I was 45 minutes late for this one so sorry guys but we are back in true nobles fashion we are back and it's been shambles absolute shambles I nearly text jack saying I'm not doing it I'm just not doing it's kind of what

I'm hoping for if I put you off both off enough then you might get rid um I need to put a public apology out there normally it's the washing machine in the background that you can hear swirling um can you hear that yeah Yeah, it's... Is that the pigeons? Yeah, it basically is coming from the pigeons. The wind is so strong on the balcony. It's coming through my balcony doors.

So it's not the pigeons making the... No, no, no, it's the wind, but it's blowing away the pigeon nest. That's good. I've got pigeon stories, so we'll do it when we come to sticky notes. Yeah. Are you well? Are you good? I'm really well, thank you.

Like, really, really well. I feel like summer's started and I feel like I'm on a massive holiday I mean this is always always what happened when you start working

you feel like you're on a jolly I just love my job like genuinely I had the best week away covering the T20s got to catch up with everybody it was bank holiday weekend yeah just just happy crossy

yeah you sent me a photo saying had a bit of a road crew out last night and it was everyone that you worked with I was like, I don't think that's that rogue, Alex. No, but it's rogue in the... You, Ebony, Charlotte Swift and Fiona? Yeah, it's rogue in the context that I wouldn't normally hang out out of work with these people.

But we all happen to be in the same place at the same time. So in that respect, it was rogue. Normally, I'd spend my bank holiday weekends with the cricket girls. Yeah, true. No, you don't have bank holiday weekends. What are you on about? Oh, true. Normally I'd be chewing grass.

Yeah. Normally chewing grass or the M6, one or the other. Yeah. Yeah, we don't have bank holidays. Is that something that I think when retirement hits, that will be something I'll really enjoy is having a bank holiday. I can't wait for our holidays, not just bank holidays, but holidays. Real holidays, the ones that we get twice a year at the minute as well. Yeah, but like, we can be like, what you're doing this weekend?

Have you got it off work? Let's go. How are you? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Very well. Good week. Give me chance, Alex. Jesus worked. Yeah, very well, thank you. I've had a lovely week. My bank holiday Monday was all about winning.

How good. Congratulations. We've won the FA Cup. Congratulations. Oh my God, what a bank holiday weekend. So good. So for everyone that doesn't know, we've got a new competition this year, which is called the T20 County Cup.

But we've called it the FA Cup because Tier 1 teams get to join a little bit later. So we joined in the 4th. round maybe played against glomorgan then we're through to the quarterfinals then we're in finals so it's been whirlwind of tournament but we've got some bloody silverware at lancashire how good i didn't your first professional trophy with lanks 20 years well we won the double in 2017 if you remember yeah were you middle sex then or were you with us i was lancashire lancashire but with england so you yeah missed the night the night um where everyone came to my flat I was on the night, but on first time.

That was the night where everyone stayed in my flat because I had a flight in Manchester and every single person that came and stayed was being sick in some form of sink or toilet or bath. So I went to be sick in my bathroom and Emma Lamb's head was in the toilet so I can't go in there. Oh, she's being sick in the sink.

Right, better go to the kitchen. Oh, no, he's being sick in the kitchen, right, okay. So it was one of them night. Great night, great night. So we've not won anything. since 2017, but it was a great day. Gritty, I would say Gritty win to win the semi, and then absolutely dominated the final.

But it was great, and a new name for you, Al, Tilly Kisdivan. What a woman? Unbelievable, gets run out without facing a ball in the semi-final. She's 19 years old. She debuted last week when we played at Blackpool in the Metro Bank 50 because Eve has got injured. So I didn't know that you cannot play. Tier 1 cricket, if you're not rookie contracted at a minimum, so she had no contract.

So she had to sign her first professional contract on the morning of the game. So she's signing a rookie contract. She's then gone out and opened the bat in with Lammy. They have put on a 70-run partnership. First time I've seen a bat was like, yeah, this girl looks decent. I heard she'd scored loads of runs in the academy and stuff and in the twos. And then gets run out in the semi-final of the FA Cup without facing a ball. She gets a chance to open the bat in again in the final and gets 7.5.

off absolutely no deliveries. Unbelievable. I was listening on the radio it sounded like wherever, wherever Surrey was bowling, she was like, you're just giving me absolute Christmas deliveries. You felt like they were bowling, just wherever they bowled, she could just hit it. She could, but she was smarter than that makes it out to be because I don't think Surrey bowled as well as they would have liked, but their lengths were pretty good. So they were still hitting top of stumps, but just a little bit wider in some deliveries.

But what she did unbelievably well was just flat back, flat bat, everything back down the ground. So I was like watching a bat. She's on 50. I was like, she's basically just playing tennis. She played tennis and scored 50. Like, is this where I'm going wrong? But so you are F-A-Cup winners. Got me medal one minute.

Yeah, show me. Show me. Got my medal. Don't put it on. Does it say Vitality FA Cup champions? No, might get F-A-Cup engraved on it though. Vitality T-20. Women's County Cup 2025 winners.

How good. And the trophy is apparently, I only found out today, from speaking to the woman herself, but the trophy is the Charlotte Edwards trophy that's been recycled. Yeah, it is. So we've won Lottie. Lottie's at Lanks now.

Pass it on. Welcome to Lank's Lottie. The night, how was it? It was good, was really good, actually. So Holiday and Taunton feels to be where we have quite a lot of boozy nights because there's not much going on in Torn. and it was bank holiday Monday.

This poor bloke, we get back to the hotel about half ten because the game finished late. There was a bit of rain. And this poor bloke had to open the bar for us. And Surrey, Surrey was staying there as well. So they were on one side of the room and we were on the other. And he kept it open all night on his own. What a man.

Shout out to that man, don't know his name. Let's call him Steve. Steve, what a man. Steve also looked a little bit like the lead singer of the few fighters. I've got his name. Okay. I know exactly the math. Dave Grohl was basically serving up.

We'll call him Dave. Look like Dave. He's also giving me a pint or two in his time. Yeah, you know who he is. Yeah. Yeah, I got a fantastic video. Shoes off if you love Kate Cross. Everyone.

Literally, what video? When I retire, that's the video I'm going to post out because that was my favourite moment of the day. Everyone's just saying that they love me. Now, we've been laughing away from our shambles group chat on the fact that our producers just love being on the podcast. podcast. But Jack was there producing for TMS and he was watching like a proud mother. I swear to God like he absolutely loved it. So Jack literally tried to film every delivery. He got your

wickets and best of all crossy he got your send-off. The send-off. The send-off's gone it's really gained some traction actually more than I thought a send-off ever would. But it even got brought up in our ODI pre-series meeting today where Lottie shows it to the whole group. So apparently, obviously, this is the first time I've been around the England team with Lottie as head coach. And she does this thing where she just shows a funny video, something that's maybe got caught on Sky or, you know, someone, well, Lottie, there was actually a video of Lottie scoffing some sweets on the bench that got brought up. And then she said, I'm not going to say much, but all I am going to say is, um, spirit of cricket.

And then I'm at the back of my run up. And I was, oh, so yeah, yeah, it got shown to the whole group today. There's always context behind a celebration, though. and well there wasn't much celebration was the well she'd hit you for six two sixes she didn't miss for two sixes and they're over and then you got her out and you just pointed at the dresser I don't do stuff like this often which I think is why

the traction's been gained because I think it goes to show actually how nice I am on the pitch and how very rare it is to see me give anyone a send off but yeah so she hit me for a really good shot went square of the wicket went for six I was like, that that sounds good. And then Boulda dot ball and then she waxed one,

probably 17 rows into the sight screen, one of the best shots of the day. What I didn't see, because I was too busy, watching the ball go over my head like this, that she had like this little swaggery bat over the shoulder, like walked down towards me.

So I'd missed all of that because I was too busy looking at the sight screen. So then I was just annoyed. I've been hit for sixes, so obviously got the wicket. I was like, do you know what? You can. And I didn't say anything.

My mouth was very much shut, but that was what the gesture was for. But then apparently the Surrey girls gave her some grief for doing the whole bat swagger thing. So I think they gave her stick. So apparently in the Surrey group, they've used that going which way to the bar. Yeah, nice.

Yeah. So you can use it in all contexts. Well, the best thing about cricket, right, is you can, like, she's hit you for six and been swaggery. you've got around being swaggery but it's like it's just on the pitch like it doesn't matter it doesn't mean that you don't respect her as a player she doesn't respect

you as a bowler it just happens yeah and it's just in the moment and like I don't do it often I generally celebrate my wickets but that was just frustration of mine coming out of like I think the beauty of being the bowler is you're always always going to get the win in that moment because

well certainly T20 cricket more likely going to get someone out but that's like the beauty of the game is that you have those little mini battles and then she's hit me for two sixes well batted but ultimately I've got the final say on it and it was a little and then because of that champions yeah winners winners winners winners so good great day loved it I love the fact you're wearing your medal love the fact you're wearing your medal you keep it on someone message me on Instagram saying I bet you're not throwing that one away I was like absolutely

not it's just going above my bed you you don't throw them away if you don't play you give them away. Yeah, sorry, yeah, I've never thrown a medal away. No. I'm going to, like, throw it back. Anything on your sticky note? No, because we have a Google dot now, don't we? Yeah, but I've got sticky notes. I've got four things. So did I, I, I told you about the pigeons being back last week, didn't I? Yeah. Did I tell you about me coming back? Yeah, you told me, this results on my sticky note. You told me, but then I wrote it down on my sticky note. We do the podcast. I go into Manchester for a coffee straight after the pod. and I get back

and I come through the front door and I'm like something's weird something's off something's not quite right and I take my shoes off and there's a pigeon on the floor in the hallway

and I was like is that it's very watery maybe it says I've dropped a bit of water on the way out I don't know walk down the hallway and when I say walk down the hall it's not big but I'm just like

putting mayo on it walk down the hallway there's another poo on the floor and I'm like I walk in the kitchen and there's poo everywhere like absolutely everywhere and I'm like oh my goodness

so I'm like check the spare room there's no poo on the carpet there's nothing under the bed there's nothing in the wardrobe little win but there's like all around my island in the kitchen

there just poo how many were in there oh my god I don't know what's going on I go into my like the balcony doors closed in the living room so it must have come through the bedroom So I go into the bedroom and the door is a jar It's got like probably enough room for a pigeon to squeeze through

Yeah sounds like it There's no poo in on my carpet in my bedroom So I'm like now I'm really confused And I'm also looking for this pigeon Because it could be anywhere Yeah And I'm like go in the bathroom There's poo on the tiles

It's not on the carpet I like open the wardrobe And I'm scared of this pigeon Pigeon is nowhere Nowhere to be seen So I've gone into town for an hour It's popped in I had a bit left Well it's had loads by the sound of it

How much do pigeons poo? Well, do you want to say the state of my balcony? Yeah, but there's a family of pigeons now living on your balcony, isn't there? So maybe I got really stressed when it was in there and couldn't get out. I was honestly on my hands and knees for 40 minutes, like cleaning poo up in my house. So how my brain works right now is if you were a TV show or a film, someone would have footage of this pigeon just walking into your bedroom, have a little sniff around like, yeah,

This is nice. Oh, let's see what's... Oh, a living room, nice. I'll go in shit everywhere in here. But can you imagine the pigeon just being like... Yeah. And it's just come in and gone, ooh, this is a nice place to have a poo.

Again, we've lowered the tone by talking about poo on this podcast, but I have a story about poo as well. We did fielding today, and it was big group fielding, and it was really high energy. And one of the drills was like, you had to defend the pockets on the band,

So you were literally sprinting 40 meters, full length dives, getting up, had to do five in a row of this. So it was like proper full on. And then Lottie's finisher was, so we were playing golf, fielding golf. So you've got certain points for missing stumps, but then you could gain points back for catching catches and stuff. So it was like you were above par or below part. Anyway, so then the final one was Lottie. Everyone had to take this sky running over your head. So I'm second last to go.

And for me to win it for my team, I had to catch my cat. So I'm like sprinting, sprinting, pull out this full-length dive, catch this catch. And as I look where my hands have landed, there's fox shit on the floor. And I was like, oh, no. And I literally looked at myself. And from here, all the way down to my elbow is just, I'd just slid in it. And I was like, it was worth it to win it for the team. Yeah, but you caught.

But now I've got going out of shower, fuming. That's why we were late for the podcast. Yeah, that was why. Well, I'd rather you'd be clean than, Pooey. I'm clean. And before I carry on with my sticky note, how has it been joining up with a team? Yeah, it's not been, I've only done a few days,

so I only met up yesterday. So I've not really got masses for you yet, Al, but obviously the girls are on the back of a T20 series win. You know, there's been the chat around New Era, head coach, captain, etc. I don't really feel massively part of that yet because I've not played any one day cricket but the one day series starts very soon

so I'm hoping that by the time we do another podcast I'll have a little bit more for you on what it's like but it's great to be back new kit like we've got the full new kit it's new colours and everything so it does feel a bit like first day at school again but it is great to be back and actually being able to play some cricket

because last time I had my England kit on I was very much not moving very well and the T20s literally couldn't have been better as like a new era, new start, let's go. England absolutely thrashed the West Indies. Like, West Indies haven't looked close. Yeah, I didn't watch because we had FA Cup games Friday and Monday, which were also England T20 games. But I watched the first game and it did, it looked pretty dominant. So, I always feel like it's hard to talk about series like this because in the media you

always get the expectation to beat a West Indies but then West Indies were the team that knocked us out of the World Cup so they're a team that really can on their day put in a great performance England never let them have their day and I think that's been the impressive thing yeah well that's the bit probably I've missed

because I've not really watched in detail but what I did see was Haley did an interview about the inexperience of the West Indies team and it's like what is their expectation as a team when they've not got many caps behind them I think I saw it was hypercourced again that did a ridiculous start about the number of caps in the England team versus all the cap numbers of the West Indies teams

and literally the West Indies teams are at the bottom of the pile because they've just got very little experience. So, yeah, it's obviously, I think maybe confident but not complacent would be how I'd say we're going into the one-day stuff. Well, it's because you always know West Indies, they might have their day like they did in the World Cup. Like they could just have their day where, you know, Haley scores 150 in the ODIs. you just never know she's such a good player but no i've been really really impressed and

been a good watch the thing that i did notice from what i did see was the smiles and i think that was so evident in the ashes was obviously how tough that series was and how quite evidently no one was enjoying losing but it really feels like there's that buzz and that energy and that enjoyment factor back with the team which is absolutely what we want to portray because playing cricket for england is the best thing that you can do so yeah um it was really really nice to see that from the game that I did see. Just a little downer, Heather, bless her. Oh, I know.

I know. Yeah, not good. So for anyone that hasn't seen, Heather Knight is out of the summer for doing her hamstring tendon, bless her. Yeah, so she'll miss the rest of the West Indies series, the India series and then the 100, and her aim is to be back fit for the World Cup in October,

which feels forever away, which goes to show the extent of the injury. but I think I feel so, so, so bad for her. I think it's devastating and it's devastating for any player to get an injury like that. But when you know Heather

and you know she's had hamstring injuries before and you literally see day in, day out, how diligent she is with her rehab, with her fitness, with her preparation, everything she does is to make sure her hammies are okay. So for her to kind of reoccur the injury but on the other hammy. Oh, and she's, you can tell that she's obviously really down about it.

And it's still really fresh. And I did press today and I got asked about it. And I said the one thing I know about Heather, though, is that as soon as that, not sulky phase, because that sounds extreme, but you all have. Do you know, we give ourselves 24 hours, right? That's when we're having a bad day, bad time. You know, you go, right, you can be however you want.

Heather can be and act however she wants for however long she needs. Yeah, like the first bit about finding out about an injury is that it is just you gutted. So like when I say sulky phase, I mean that she's obviously going to be really upset about it and to miss a whole English summer is hard. But as soon as she gets over that phase and moves into the next phase of looking ahead and how she gets fit again, she will smash that because she's like I said, she's diligent. Her work ethic is second to none and will absolutely be desperate.

to have her for that World Cup because she's one of our best English players. So the only caveat I've got to it is that when one door shuts, another door opens and Alice Capsy's been called into the squad that she wasn't initially picked in and, you know, it might create an opportunity for her that she otherwise didn't have. So I think that's the way we're trying to see it in the group is that, you know, it's maybe an opportunity for someone else now to stick the hand up. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms,

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Every dish has its own story. Flavors, experimentation and tradition, Turkey has it all. Plan your detour at go-turkia.com. Three more things on a sticky note. Three, buddy-ha-you've been busy. Yeah. Well, I've got one hilarious thing,

one fact and one stupid thing. Which one do you want first? Fact. The UK has had its sunniest spring since records began in 1910. Wow. That's a fact. When we went out one time,

ages and ages and ages ago, you told the bouncer that you were born in 1915 because you got your age wrong, you're a bit drunk. So that was just the five years after, before you were born, that happened. Yeah, yeah. I was there.

He went and looked at me and went, no, you weren't. No, you weren't. Wow, I have heard another, I don't know if it's fact or rumour, but I had heard that if you have a very good spring, you tend to have a very bad summer, which I'm hoping isn't true. Yeah, but that's a bit like that time I told you that we're not sleeping well, it was something to do with the moon.

Oh yeah, you told me the moon was in recession or something. I believed it. So I'd die. Which one do you want next? Maybe you're stupid or funny. We'll do silly then funny. Silly. Or me being stupid, then funny.

Okay. So I played golf, sorry, I have to give context behind this. And I'm on this golf estate, and it's like a one way in, one way out. So it's like you're driving on your own. So I drive into this golf state, play five hours, took me a while, drove out, one way, drive out. And I get to the main entrance slash exit of this golf estate, country lanes. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm going left, so indicate it wrong. No, cars come in, I go left.

I'm like, something doesn't feel right. I'm like, I know I've played golf and I've not played very well and I'm a little bit rattled but something's not right but I'm just going to slow down because I can't work out if there's something wrong with my car

or like I've left the door open I just didn't know what was right anyway I go around this corner and coming towards me is a tractor I drove on the wrong side of the road for about four minutes oh wow and I knew something didn't feel right

that would be it probably the driving on the road It really rattled me What threw me about this when you told me via text was you haven't been in a country where you've driven that's on the wrong side of the road So why would you do that? No, I just had a really, really bad mind blank

But do you know when like I now can't stop thinking about it Because what if somebody had been driving at 60 miles an hour Which they were allowed to on a country road Around the corner that I was going on Like thank God there was a tractor holding everybody up Yeah, not good But maybe just don't drive on the wrong

side of the road? Yeah, and I told my mum and dad, and they were like, oh, it can happen, don't worry. I'm like, I don't think it happens. No, it doesn't happen often. And people that do, it does happen to, tend to be on the news. Have we got someone to go upstairs with this week? Oh. Right, let's go upstairs with Kumar Damascana because he's during the first men's ODI at Edgebaston.

He's on the third umpire, so we'd have to go up with him. Right then, perfect. We hope he's got his after shave. Best smelling umpire on the circuit. Is he? Is that fact? He's the one with you. He's got these aftershare brand, hadn't they?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, again, context is quite king there, Al. Hello, Kate and Alex. It's so nice having the podcast back, and I'm really glad to know that you're both okay. Before I carry on reading this email, thank you so much to everyone that replied to our Instagram, that DM does.

We're backing our DMs, everyone. Yes, we are. We've got the DMs back open on Instagram, so please do message us on there because we can see it again now. But yeah, thank you, everyone for messaging us because you were all lovely. a question for Alex

what fingers do you use to spin the ball I'm going to get a ball right well I'll carry on reading this while you do that I'm an occasional off spinner and I use the first two fingers to bowl an off break sometimes I slip in a leggy for which I use the first and third fingers how do you hold it when you're trying to

when you're not trying to spin it so two questions there for you so one that you're trying to spin it it on one where you're not trying to spin it now i've got a ball it's not just any ball oh is this the stewart broad ball it's my stewart broad ball nice stewart broad signed cricket ball um which i've taken out of the case do you know how we had in the case and put my six-foot ball in that because that made more sense than having a few broad signed ball in the living room so my six-for ball which you actually wrote for me because you're writing's lovely is in my living room um but this is my

Stuart Broad signed ball which I've just shoved in the cupboard but how I used to spin it Yeah, sorry Stuart I actually don't know why I've got it Before we start Al Were you, did you try and spin the ball Every time you bowled or was it a T20 thing

Or a one day thing like what was your process? Always always start by spinning the ball as hard as you can Like always Because if you can get one to turn sideways first up You're then in the batter's mind and they'll think you're going to spin every ball. So yeah, always, always try and spin it. So I used to hold it with my index finger and my middle finger

and my third finger was sort of underneath the ball and I would rip it off my index finger. So I would spin the ball off my index finger and then sometimes I would get a blister on my middle finger because you'd rip down the side of the ball and sort of use all your hand if that makes sense. I would use all my fingers. If I wanted to spin the ball less,

I would use my thumb as a handbrake. So nothing changes. I would still try and spin it with my index finger, but I'd use my thumb as a handbrake because it would take revs off the ball. Yep. And for anyone that doesn't know, revs as a spinner is just literally the amount of revolutions

that the ball turns on itself. But a lot of revs is what gives spinners dip, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So if you bowl, obviously, it's hard to do it on a podcast. Obviously we've got the video, but you could go undercut it

and it'd come out like a flying saucer that would have no dip on it and it would slide on. If you went... If you went over the top of the ball you would get more dip so it would come out and the seam position would be at the batter.

An ideal seam position for me as a left arm spinner was angling the seam towards first slip so that it would then get the dip from the revs and the turn from the scene. So is that why Charlie Dean is hard to face because she seems to me by eye. I'm obviously not a trained.

spin coach but she seems to come over the top of the ball so does she get a lot more dip than a lot of other spinners yeah she gets a good amount of dip but because she's spinning the ball she spins it as well like good good bowler yeah nice good there you go spinning the ball 101 with Alex Hartley what fingers do you use hello Alex and Kate Kate and Alex so great to have you back have missed the podcast after listening to your last episode where you talked about syria of Ashney in the IPL and talked about what you were doing at 14, I thought you might be interested to know what my daughter is doing at 14. Last Sunday, she scored 219, not out, off 91 balls. In a 25-over league game.

Sorry, just you've missed out quite a big bit there where she's gone into the detail of 44s and 36. Forty-fours. I thought we're already gloating. We don't need to know how well. Oh, do you know. in their 25 over league game for New Milton in Hampshire. The knot was New Milton's club record across all formats, men, women and juniors and put her eighth on the national play cricket honours board for the week. Kate's Lancashire Captain Ellie Threlkeld sent her congratulationary video message. Well, here's your congratulationary shout out on the pod.

219 not out. Birdie, I'll show up on the batting as well. And if the email's not gloating enough, there's a scorecard to prove it and a pitcher by the scoreboard to prove it. That's a classic got to have the pitcher by the scoreboard. Yeah. Did you ever have one of those? I've never scored 100.

No, we neither. Sophie, that is unbelievable. Get her in the IPL, WPL, call her up. Come on. Get her in the draft. Cheers Charlotte for the email. I actually love your cricketing stories. Right, last email.

Crosswood. I've got to get in the car to come and see you. Okay. Hello, Kate and Alex. Good to hear you back on the pod and hope you both feeling well. Is it possible? to give a shout out to... Nah, no, we don't do this show.

No, no, we don't do shout outs, do it? Is it possible to give a shout out to my wife, Sophie, for her birthday on the 29th of May? That's today. Happy birthday, Sophie. At time of recording, it is your birthday. Yep, 29th.

It was good to see you back out on the field crossy on bank holiday Monday. We both went to the CACG to watch the T20 County Cup semi-final. That's the FA Cup, everyone. So they were there for the semis and the final. If you could hear some loud encouragement from the Somerset faithful, that would be us. As Somerset were out, we picked a team in each game and cheered them on.

Great result for Thunder. Yeah, so I was fielding at Long On for a lot of this game. And in the Marcus Droskothic Pavilion, there was just some random people shouting saying, come on Thunder, looked over, I didn't recognise them, but I was like, yeah, okay, great. And it was these people. Selfie and Jules. Looking forward to seeing the England game on the 7th go well for the rest of the season. One question.

What ground do, such did you and Jules? enjoy playing at the most. Look, we've answered this question a thousand times. Lester? No, Lester's got the best viewing area. Derby. Norlands. Yeah, good dressing rooms now.

So this is weird, actually. We've got into the Derby dressing room. They've redone it all. So do you remember there used to be a bit in the corner? So you'd walk in, the toilets are straight ahead of you, and then there's just that little corner bit that I was used to sit in with me and Heather are in there. Yeah.

They've changed it now. So, you know, go through that. corner into where the toilets are and they've made it on through this massive shower thing with new toilets, etc. And they've put a bus stop on the wall. So instead of the now being lockers where I used to sit, there's one of those things that you get a bus stops where you don't have to sit down on a chair, but you can stand up and lean on the seat. Do you know what I mean? Right. Yeah, why? If someone got a bad back in the Derby team, is that? It must do, but it's obviously just a new viewing area where if you don't want to sit down,

and you can stand and lean against this thing. So it's a bit random. But, yeah, the new bus stop. Do you know what? It's that time of year where you should send in your cricketing stories. Do you know who I want to hear from? So listeners, do you think,

find the people that we need to get in touch with us, but the team that conceded 400 odd runs in a club game and then were balled out for two. I want to hear from anyone that was at that game. I want them on the pod. I want to get them on. Send us your send off. So I've got some ideas for my next game.

Do you know what? send-offs are actually really actually probably a better shout it's on theme with us get your send-offs in if you want to get in touch with us you can email us on no balls podcast at bbc.com.combeck noblespodcast at bbc.combec.com.com. It's so good. They've said it twice. Crossie. Yes. We are so back. We're back. And we will see you at an indefinite time when Alex decides that she's ready to do the podcast again. How very dare you How very dare you

Don't buy Alex I'm going to pack my bags And I'll see you at dinner See you at dinner Love you by Love you bye Drive safe On BBC sounds

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