Test Match Special - No Balls: England march on & Crossy's magic-mania

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Kate Cross and Alex Hartley discuss England's win over India in the World Cup, confirming their place in the tournament's semi-finals. Plus, why did Crossy's obession of magic make her week away even more exciting?

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Now I'm celebrating for crossing That one was for crossing That was a beautiful delivery The wobble ball again from Kate Cross And that is such an important wicket And Kate Cross in for the hat-trick ball Oh it's so wide Hello and welcome back to No Bulls

The Cricket podcast with me Alex Hartley And in the middle of the night Kate Cross I mean Alex feels like the middle of the night it's not it's 5 to 8 but it really does it's dark outside and i'm gonna break the early news you have to get up this early because we've got a podcast guest um said guest is no longer a guest on the podcast it it this podcast is one of those things that if we've got a guest on it i would get up at 3 am to do yeah just me and you 7 30 in the morning doesn't feel like

at our wheelhouse for the best time to be recording this? No, your message to me this morning when you found out Heliod cancelled. She is coming on, by the way, for anybody that's tuning in just to listen to her. But next time we do a podcast really, really made me laugh because I was like, I'm so sorry. It's literally so early. Yeah, it's not that early. People get up to go to normal life and start work at this time. So it's not that, you know, it's just I'm not in that flow of my arm at 7.15 at the minute.

So I'm just going to say sorry now because it's, It already doesn't feel like it's going to be my best. I feel less than a bit nasally already. All of our podcast listeners know that we don't do mornings. Don't do mornings unless we've just got in from the night. That'd be the one. Sorry, sorry, quit you all, right. Oh, my God.

Do you know what? Do you know what makes this all even a little bit funnier? I was just in the middle of a dream when my alarm went off that we were doing the podcast with Midge. And I called her smudge, thinking that was her nickname. and it obviously isn't she's midge and she's really really made up in my dream like beautiful face of makeup and i was like why have you got so much makeup on for the podcast and she panned around the room and in the room was feebie litchfield um tarley mcgrar um ash gardner and george relish don't know how

george relis got in on this but they were recording their own podcast that they do don't think they do a podcast in real life pretty sure they don't and we were going to just put them both out at the same time. And as much as we love our shambles of a podcast, theirs was like a thousand times more of a shambles. They stopped recording halfway through and just started playing a game of hide and seek. And we were like, oh, should we leave now? Because this, it's actually, this isn't a good episode. And then I woke up to the message that had been canceled. Then I was like, of course, of course. Yeah, of course. You subconsciously knew that Alyssa Healy had meetings today. But hey, she'll be back. It's fine. We'll get it done. We'll tie her down.

And the interviewer. The questions that went out on Instagram were very good so we will definitely get them to her. Even if she don't come on, we'll get them to her because I feel like she'll answer them for us. Yes.

But getting up really early, Crossy, how are you and how have you been? Yeah, I'm okay. I've had a really lovely week away. I went on the PCA summit and then, oh, we spoke about this last week, went on the PCA summit and then played some golf. So I went over there with Phoebe

and we joked about a test match. We played a test match of golf. We played five days in a row. And I'm not really conditioned to playing golf at the minute. So it was a real toll on the body. But we had a great time. It was good fun. I played my four ball was Stephen Finn, BBC's finest.

And Mark Butcher, Sky Sports Cricket's finest. So it was really good fun. We had a great week. A lot of laugh. A lot of terrible golf. A lot of very good golf. by butch because he's very good at golf. Yeah.

I know you've had a good week because this is the first time I was spoken to you for a week. Yeah, I did say I was going off the grid, didn't I was like, I just want to go and enjoy some golf, switch my phone off, have a bit of fun.

But now it was interesting. I was like, I took that so literally. I was like, okay, she said she's going off grid so I'm just not going to message and if she needs me, she'll message or she wants to talk, she'll message. And I was like, I'm just going to let her enjoy a week away. You really did.

Lost. You really did. Yeah, I felt lost. When I did message to say, how are you doing? You're like, I've been really poorly. And I was like, oh, God, right, okay, I'm going to come back on the grid to check that you've not dehydrated permanently and riveled up into a raisin. You sent me a picture of you and Phoebe G.

And I was like, oh, I love you both. Like, nice to see you. I hope you having a great time. You're like, how are you? I was like, yeah, unwell. Really not good, were you? Not good at all. Are you better now?

I am. I ate my first, I had my first day of eating yesterday. that's a full week after yeah yeah um when i say it got to the stage crossy where i got on the in the car to go to one of the games and i was like do you think i've got a parasite oh oh we got there did we was it that bad and then i saw one of my mates from the icc yesterday is like you've lost weight i like it's not good oh bless you oh it's not good because dan had it first didn't he Why did you go to games if you've had something that was getting passed around? So we got said bug and then had two days off.

So Dan went down first and then I went down. And then Dan was fine. Like his was like a 20-hour thing. He said he stopped being sick after like four hours and then it was just the other side for another 12, 24 hours. I ended up missing a day of work which I've never done in my life. I've never been ill. I missed work and then went and did the England game

and when I got there I was like I'm not sure I should be here got home and I projectile vomited everywhere Oh my God Yeah but it was one of those And you know what it's like when you're travelling India You don't want to be sick in a public toilet Because you don't know what else are you going to pick up

Well that was where I fear I picked up The Parasite was in one of the cricket stadium toilets so yeah good choices so I just sat there all day hunched over going I'm going to be sick my mum was on holiday bless her so she's come to Sri Lanka and she's like do you need some water again oh at least you had do you know what those are the days where you do you just wish you had your mum and the fact that your mum was there probably was an absolute blessing in disguise but the last sick that I did it felt like my small intestine was coming out so she brought some water into the bathroom and she was then nearly sick

because she was like smells like something died oh bless you yeah oh but other than that cross it yeah I'm good good there's one part of this trip that I have to tell you about out because I didn't quite explain it to you as much as I should have done at the time but so we were away for graham goochie's um it's now become an annual golf trip last year was the first time it had happened so then me and Phoebe got invited back and the girl who organized it is a girl called B and she's like the I don't even know what a job title is but like does all the events

for the PCA. She's a belter and they know and Gucci knows the vice I need to get this right the vice president of the magic circle so you know the real secretive thing that all the magicians are part of

that once you're in it you can't let your secrets out you've got to be yeah you like you I think you're probably like blood you know what it's like a blood oath where they don't let anything out do you know what I'm talking about I feel like you've never heard of the magic circle so it's magicians it's it's the thing that like like Dynamo will be a part of Darren Brown will be a part of it's like what you sign up to to

not give anything away but also being part of it is like really prestigious okay okay so this guy he's called Michael Fitch he's vice president he's just been made vice president of the magic circle. So he's, he's a big deal. He, like, does all of Gordon Ramsey's show. Like, he was at Gorda, Tilly Ramsey's 18th, and he was telling me the story. He was like, so I'm doing this magic trick for the Beckham's and David's fate. And he's like, dropping all these names because his life is just not real, basically. And you're like, and I'm Kate Cross. Yeah. And I was like, I love magic. I'm obsessed with magic. It's like the one thing. And I was saying this to him, I feel like, if you're at a show,

and it's like music or sport. You might not always necessarily be into it, but I feel like everyone buys into magic. But the word, right, so I'm with you, like totally with you, but the word magic also gives me the ick. Yeah, because it does feel like you've gone to a 12-year-old's birthday party. But this was... I know what you're saying.

Alice was the proper stuff. This was like he was reading people's minds. He was giving a dice to Mark Butcher saying, put the dice face down. Don't show anyone what number is. Oh, that's a four. And Butch is like, it's a thought. And he went around the whole room and did it with everyone,

just threw this dice to them. And then he guessed B's dad's PIN number for his phone. Well, didn't guess it, obviously. But he was just like, it was proper. You know, the proper stuff that really does make you think, like, what the hell are you doing? Anyway, so I'd met him the day before, and I was telling him, I was like,

I've got magic books at home. I really wanted to be a magician when I was a kid. And he was like, right, I'm going to use you for the spoon bending. So I was like, right, okay, bending a spoon. it's not hard. Like, I can bend a spoon. Anyway, he gets me up. All you do is rub it and it bends.

He gets me up in front of the whole group. He's like, you're the person I'm going to use. Owen Morgan has sent me a video because he was there. He was filming my face when this happens. So he gets this spoon. I'm going to use a nail file as a visual. So he gets a spoon and he's got it on his hand like this. And as it's on its hand like this, it starts bending like that.

And I'm like, what the hell? How is that happening? thinking it must be a fake spoon. Then he gives me the, sorry, before all of this, he gave me the spoon to sign, so my signature's on this spoon. So it's bending, it's bending, it's bending. It gets it to the point where,

I'm going to have to break my nail file for this. Gets it to the point where the spoon is like this. Okay. And I'm like, there's something that, like, it doesn't feel right. He then straightens it back up. So I'm like, yeah, there you go. Like how easy was it to bend that spoon?

He then gets me up, puts it in my hand like this. So I'm holding the spoon as tight as. I can. And he's like twisting it around like this underneath. And the only way I can describe it is a bit like, you know those tongs that you used when you were at school in music and you used to bang it on the table and it would vibrate. Yeah. That's how it felt in my hand. So that tiny vibration in my hand. He eventually pulls the spoon out and the whole thing is twisted around itself. So where is your spoon? Oh, I left it. Actually, Finney's got it. So I can I can show you this spoon eventually. But

Finney's got it at the minute. I'll get him to send a photo. But it's like twisted around itself. Did you send me a video? I did. Yeah. No, I sent you a video. Let me get out of the photo for the purposes.

Yeah, let me just get the video up. I won't, I won't play the video because it was quite early in the morning, wasn't it? It was quite early at the morning. You got out of bed for the spoon? I did. That is how the spoon is twisted. Look at my face. You're like, whoa.

Look at that. what the hell man and he was like it's all put his whole thing he was joking so that's he signed it on the on the actual spoon bit and i've signed the bottom bit look at that it's twisted around itself and he did that in my hand for anybody listening they're going to be like crossy this is the most excited we've heard about anything for months and also and also i didn't know you loved magic oh I love magic. If you can turn a tennis ball into a potato, you've got my full attention. Right, I'll get working on some magic.

Also, let you in on a little something for next time we see Finney, okay? So Finney got, obviously it was part of the distraction, but there's this bag and there's a lemon in it. And so he was like, right, I just need a volunteer to hold on to this lemons. And every time I shout, who's got the lemon? you've got to stand up and shout I've got the lemon baby and that was Finney's job and when I say Finney took it to a whole new level

like there's four shouts of who's got the lemon and it was Finney every time and he stood up obviously six foot six he stands up and he screams at the top of his voice I've got the lemon baby and it said became this thing that whenever anyone saw him on the trip they were like who's got the lemon

so next time you see him I want you to ask him who's got the lemon Okay, I might just send him a lemon emoji To see what he says, yeah Because he'll actually be up now So by the time he replies, we'll be halfway through this podcast Just text him now, text him now saying, who's got the lemon? I've actually just typed in lemon rather than thin

Who's got the lemon? See what he says. See what he says, yeah Wow, so what a week off? Yeah, so anyway, I just promised the magician that I would mention this because my mind was blown, blown. So you keep calling him the magician. Is part of the magic circle we don't know their names?

Michael Fitch. I did say his name. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah, I actually was calling him, I thought his name was Michael Fish. So I was calling him Michael Fish for a few days, but that's not his name. It's Michael Fitch. Okay, Michael Fitch.

And he's a proper magician. Proper, proper stuff. Like, I was like, tell me what's going on in my mind. Should I play cricket next year? He was like, I can't answer those big questions for you. They're like card readers, they're different. Yeah, yeah, fortune tellers. Yeah, fortune tellers.

Bring more gear, carry more passengers, face greater challenges. Welcome to the world of Defender, with seating up to eight, ample cargo space, and legendary off-road capability. It's built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at landrover.ca. Well, while you were having your week off, Chrossey, I'm in the middle of a World Cup. Oh, yeah, it's still going on. Yeah, yeah.

We've got three teams now that have qualified. Australia, unbeaten, England, unbeaten, and South Africa. And the funny thing is, even the people at the bottom of the table, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, in some weird and wonderful way everyone can still qualify. That's good though, isn't it? That's the kind of World Cup that you want because that's definitely what you want to have towards the back end. I know we're probably not too, we're not close enough to the back end for that to be happening just yet.

But that is very good. That's kind of how you want the World Cup to go. It's not going to happen. It's going to be India or New Zealand, but it's still great. I've seen that you, I did see a few quotes on the internet whilst I was on my week off and I saw you were fighting, fighting some fires. Me, fighting fires? This morning at the ICC came up to me and was like, you love a headline, don't you?

And I was like, no, I'm just speaking the truth. And the truth is, crossy, that we knew, and we said on the podcast before the World Cup, it's monsoon season. Yeah, yeah. And you're not the only one that said it. Like, Soph, I saw Sophie Devine have a, um, there was a quote, from her saying it's just disappointing, isn't it? It's just you don't want to be sat here watching the rain for a start in World Cup

when you've waited four years to play in this event. Yeah, and for a lot of the girls here, it's not just Sophie Devine, for a lot of them, it's their last ever one, and it's really disappointing knowing that it's going to rain, knowing that you're going to get a washout, knowing that it's going to be rain-affected. Actually, it should be like yesterday, England versus India, where you know that you're going to get a 50 over game in and if there's a shower it's probably only

going to be an hour Yeah, yeah I know you can't control the weather and I know that but cricket is a summer sport which is why we play it in countries during the summer

Well you can't control the weather but you can control when you put a global tournament on in people's monsoon season that feels controllable in my head Yeah the big quote that I said yesterday

It's ruined the World Cup It's been a real shame And it has ruined the World Cup And it's not there's certain stories that obviously haven't been ruined but New Zealand having washed out games Sri Lanka playing most of their games in Sri Lanka

and barely playing any cricket Yeah well this must be affecting Pakistan the most because they'll have the most games in Sri Lanka won't they? They've got all their games in Sri Lanka So I think the thing for me is the weather was really predictable going into the tournament we knew what was going to happen

and it's happened Yeah yeah And like I said I think 50 over cricket you don't you just want 50 over cricket is designed to allow the best team to win over a long period of time as soon as you shorten that game down it becomes a different a whole different ball game literally yeah it's been really interesting to see who's liked my quote and like do you know like cricketers from around the world that are like oh that's a good quote normally it's like oh stay away from that but everyone's getting on board with it

and i think that shows how frustrated everybody is yeah i've seen a fair bit of stuff actually around the frustration of the scheduling of the World Cup and like the venues that they've chosen in India they're not like headline venues are they I fully understand you have to take cricket out to places but when you're playing in a World Cup you want it to be like the showcase pieces you want to think about playing in England you want to be playing at Lords and the Oval and Old Trafford and all the big places like you don't want to be that it doesn't feel like the time to be trying to grow the game it feels like the time to be embracing what we've got within the game and using the crowds and the fans that have already

been created through the WPL and things like that. Yeah. Yeah, I do feel like from 2017, 2020, even to now, the game has changed so much. Like obviously, 2017, we were at the likes of Leicester, Derby, Bristol. They'd been like great supporters, Taunton, great supporters of women's cricket. But when you look at what fixtures we've got coming up in venues in 2026, it's like Edgebraston, Oval, Lords, Old Trafford. You know, it's like, back, I think, what we deserve, really, to be honest with you. Yeah, and I remember thinking when I saw that this World Cup was in India, so that would have been over four years, around four years ago, probably.

I remember thinking, wow, that's going to be flagship. That's going to be the big event that catapults. Like, it felt like we kind of caught something in 2017, but never caught it properly to use it. and then New Zealand's on the other side of the world so, you know, as good and big and that final is absolutely mega and there was a lot of people there supporting it,

it feels like India was the one that was going to be able to really grab the ball by the horns and take women's cricket further and I'm from a distance, I'm not sure that I've seen that. India games, yes. I think there's, you know, yesterday 20,000 people sold out. The Australia India game, yes, but everything else, the games have been really.

quiet, really struggling to sell tickets in Sri Lanka, obviously, the venue has become free, so you can just walk in and, you know, you don't have to buy tickets for that venue anymore in Colombo. And obviously with the having to move the final or the semi-final from Bangalore, but I guess there's going to be a semi-final in Navi Mumbai, which is like the home of women's cricket apparently here in India. I've played the Sass match. The finals there. I don't think I've ever. ever been, but I could be lying, because I've definitely played cricket in Mumbai, loads.

No, I don't think you will have been to Navi Mumbai, because I hadn't up until the WPL that I commentated on, the first one. Yeah, okay. There we go, then. There we go. Was that new Navibai? Yeah, it was. Yeah, I remember because you stayed on the ground.

Is that what you stayed on the ground? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were like, whoa, my hotel room is literally overlooking the ground. And I was like, yeah, shame you can't watch from your room because you're commentating. Yeah, that was also Parasite. That was Parasite Hotel. I was really poorly in that hotel. Yeah.

But England grabbed defeat from absolutely nowhere yesterday. What's the getting victory from the cause of defeat? Yeah, that's it. That's it. Victory from clause of defeat. But they did it the opposite way around. Snatched victory. Whatever they did, honestly, was wild crossy.

was such a good game. I was like a kid at Christmas. Finally a good game of cricket. Did England win it or did India lose it? Honestly, honestly, India lost it. A lot of Smriti's had a fair bit of heat on her, hasn't she? Yes. She, yeah, it wasn't good. Her dismissal wasn't good. Did you see her press conference? She looked really sad. Did you hear what she said about it?

No. So she said she took full kind of ownership and was like, yes, we collapsed. Our shot selection was poor. And she said that she takes full responsibility for the collapse starting with her because they were kind of cruising at that point. And she said that she was trying to get that ball more over cover. So she was like, yeah. So she was like it was a mistake.

But she was then saying how the whole inning she'd been talking about not, talking to herself, sorry, about not going aerial, not going aerial, not going aerial, and then that happened and she was like, the emotion just takes you. And she was like, and that, it's just really interesting. Because in that moment, I'm going, Miss Christy, what, where's that come from? You've not played that shot all day. And then that happens. And it's probably a really tiny insight into how cricket is played mostly in your head.

It was there to go over extra cover as well. but I was thinking back to when we played in 2019 and Linz was playing as well, Lindsay Smith was playing and she was our match-up to Mandana because she would go around the wicket and go straight across her and Mandana would just biff it down Long Offs Throat and that was the plan wasn't it? Yeah, well that was six years ago.

I know and then I was like, oh my God, this is such a throwback. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was. But also that was T20 cricket. Yeah, and it felt a little bit like she'd been, so disciplined and then her eyes just went that's got my name on it and it was the same with Deep Tshama

this is I think what I was trying to allude to just before is that 50 over cricket kind of eaks out those situations and it gets it gets rid of the crap in a way because you can't you can't fake 50 over cricket because you have to do your skills for longer

like T20 cricket if she gets out on 88 playing that shot you're going fair enough take the game on but in 50 over cricket, the responsibility probably did lie in her shoulders to get them a lot closer than 50 runs. What are you doing?

What are you doing? And then, Deepty Sharma. Eccleston's got two balls left and she slog sweeps her and gets out. And how hard is Sophie to slug sweep? She's like the hardest player in the world to slogsweep. It was wild. It was a wonderful game.

And do you know what? India should have won. Could have won. They were in total control. But I think it's been a, it showed a real mindset shift in this England team of stay in the game

they're showing a lot more grit like when their backs are against the wall like they're not there's no panic it's almost like it's okay all we need is one wicket like there's no panic whatsoever stick to your plans you know keep things really simple

everything looks calm out there so rather than finding ways to lose we're finding ways to win and it's there's been some real strange games of cricket in this World Cup and they've been really gritty but also they've shown what this team could be about now. Yeah.

So it's it's been really interesting and I'm really interested to see how we go against the world's best team and Heather said that in her interview yesterday she said yeah we've got a good challenge against the world's best team and let's just see how we go.

That's just reminding me I've got two things. The question that I opposed to smudge midge on the in the Dream podcast was about going up against us and obviously for us that Australia is the big test it had been India previously as in how we played against them in the summer

and yesterday's game felt a big game whereas maybe in the past it might not have felt as big a game so that was the first question that I posed to Alyssa on the podcast and the other thing was can we please just give a little shout out to her the night 300 games for England and then you go and get 100

and probably save your team and get your team into a winning position so good so she was amazing and obviously you know what she's like she doesn't like the attention so she was like okay I just need to concentrate on winning this game and getting runs and I think 300 games for your country is actually just wild

isn't it? I think you'll know the stats but I only know Danny Wyatt got to that recently I'm guessing Lottie has yeah I think I think there's five of them, six of them. There's not many. But it just shows, like, through all the injuries that she's had,

like, her poor hamstring's been hanging off on a number of occasions and just her determination and, I guess, love for the game. I just want to call the media out, though, a little bit because they're going down the really easy headline of, oh, she's not captain anymore. It's freed the reins and freed the shackles, and she's this really, like, brilliant batter. She was our best batter in the ashes.

I don't think the captaincy has ever affected Heather's batting. She's been that batter for a long time. I think what has given her the fire in her belly in this World Cup is the injury. I think her being on the sidelines all summer, not knowing if she's going to make it, obviously probably likely going to be her last World Cup as well, 50 over World Cup. Then that's the fire in the belly. It's nothing to do with the captaincy in my head because she's not, in my opinion, changed how she's battered.

No, not at all. And she's the same batter if, like, you know, she's still, she was our most skillful battle, you're right. And she definitely has been her and that. It's so important for this England side. But I'm with you. The captaincy never affected her. Like it's something she loved doing.

And she actually said yesterday it's something, it's a new adjustment. And she's got to find different ways of finding that fire in a belly in a way. Yeah. She's doing it. Yeah. But I just think it was, it felt like quite an easy.

throwaway comment to make when actually that's not in my head that doesn't feel like the case at all no neither in mine i think she's just an absolute jet yeah and when you say it most skillful player in our team i actually think she's got the best cricket brain in terms of reading situations i think if it's the classic question if someone was to bat for your life who would it be and it'd always be heather night yeah yeah she's shown that in this world cup she's through great situations and bad situations and done well. Right, we've had a WhatsApp message. Should you read it?

Oh, no, wait. Before we do that, did you see the woman in the crowd with a no-ball sign at the World Cup? Yes, I did. We got tagged in that, didn't we? I've got a bouncer pit with her, though. It felt really too soon, it felt really too soon to be an ex-Ingland cricketer.

And she said two ex-Ingland cricketers host Snowballs at Cricket podcast, and it just felt like a real knife. Yeah, I purposely didn't reshare it because you text me saying that's a dagger. It just felt, wow, like, yeah, it's accurate, but do we need to say it out loud? I'm at therapy to work through this, guys.

Can we just give me another month? Another two months, please. A bit of a wiggle room. Just shows how quickly people move on. It's savage, isn't it? Do you know, I remember when Lydia retired and Robo was head coach and we did a chat

Robbo did a chat you're probably in the room you must have been and everyone was obviously like it was the first major retirement that I've been a part of and Robbo was like no one's died

no one has died we move on we're all a bit like we put shell shots weren't we like and he just said that and I was like oh he is right like we do just carry on

and that is that's probably how I felt during this World Cup actually I've just been like okay yep that's chapter close it's a horrible feeling though isn't it it's that it's in a way the loneliest feeling because not because not because you get over the fact you're not there it's all your friends have just carried on yeah and they're obviously going to they're going to yeah it would be weird if they're constantly ringing you going miss you how are you yeah they've got to work up

to concentrate on but it is just really it it's lonely as how I I would describe it. Yeah, yeah, good, probably a good way to describe it. Anyway, we've had a WhatsApp, I had one from Les. Les said, I heard you mention on a recent episode that you might reintroduce X. Oh, we keep doing this, don't we say we'll do something, then we forget about it. So thank you, Les, for reminding us. I might have one for you.

My daughter was chatting with a female friend, and the talk somehow got on to showers. The friend, oh, we've had this one. The friend said that when she has one, she doesn't wash her legs. Yeah, we've had that. This is, but our list is like circa 2018 chat, I think. Her thought is that when the water just runs down, it washes them for her. Neither of us could get our head around it. I do this.

I do this too, unless I've got dirty knees. Yeah, or unless I've played sport and then I'll, like, if I've played golf and I've got mud, I will make the effort to wash my legs. Yeah. During the summer, over a beer at my cricket club, I asked the guys what they did, and out of two teams only one. Is this an ick,

or don't either of you wash your legs in the shower too? Les. I think more people do this. More people do this than his survey that he's done. You're telling me, you're getting your leg up, you're giving it, washing the bottom of your feet. No, it washes in the water. It does wash in the water.

Because the shower gel runs down your legs, so it washes for you. Yeah, you wash the bits that need washing. Here's one, do you wash your neck? No, but I have always been told to wash behind your ears, but it's really hard on not a hair-washed day. Yeah, but I never, like, I'll always wash my face or let it's fully at my face,

but then I'll never have to really think about consciously washing my neck. I've never, never washed my face, have I? No, you don't wash your face? No, I just let the water run on it, a bit like my legs. Yeah. I mean, if you're doing it for your legs, why not do it for your face? I just, I don't know.

I've just always had clear skin, and I don't want to start washing it just in case that's why it's clear. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That does make sense. People can email us all because we know that we're having Healy on, so people can send specific emails in for Alyssa. They can, they can, because all my podcast notes were just notes for Healy this week. I don't think I've got anything on the podcast notes.

No, I do. I do I've got think of some icks nice I've obviously looked at that in the last week oops the thing is all week I've been like oh it gives me a bit of the ick that I know we talk about icks all the time you talking about magic it's like really wholesome and it brings out this child in you but the word magic gives me the it well probably got the best out of me at eight in the morning. True. Would you?

If, here's one for you. You went on a first date, it goes well. This is like red flag, business as usual, deal breaker on the podcast. Yeah, let's play. Me and Crossy play, red flag, green flag, or what is it? Red flag. Deal breaker, business as usual. Right.

So red flag is like, oh, it's a bit of red flag you can get past it. Deal breaker is no, done, dusted. We're never seeing this bloke again. And a business as usual is, yeah, that's fine. Carry on. So you go on a first date, Crossie. It's really, really have a really nice time. You get to know him.

Let's just say you're on your fourth date. And he goes, do you want to come watch what I do? I know what you're going to say, and it's business as usual. And he's a magician. But he's not like, he's not in this magic circle. He's like starting out as a magician. No, I'd support that because if you could get, into the magic circle and I could meet Darren Brown and then.

So you're using it? Oh, there was a point where he had a pack of cards in his hand. I've got some cards here, actually. He had a pack of cards in his hand. He had a pack of cards in his hand and he went like that. I saw the cards in his hand. He went like that and he turned it into a clear perspex thing that said his name on it. Like where did the cards go?

There you go. So that business as usual for Crossy and a magician. Love magic. If people have got videos that they want to send in of their magic tricks, I would happily watch them all day. Oh my God, we could get guests on to show us their magic tricks. That's what I'm here for. I'd watch that all day. Okay, there we go. That is how we're going to get a crossy through the winter. Yeah, magic. Maybe I should take up magic. Maybe I should become a magician. Oh, I love you so much.

Don't tell me that you don't find it. Excuse me, I'm yawning because it's 8 in the morning. Don't find me that you don't find magic impressive. Because if you don't, you're lying. Not. Anyone though. Not just you, anyone. Yeah, I find it impressive, but I also know it's fake.

It's distractions out and it's manipulations. But how do you get that good that you can just turn? Like, when I got the spoon back, it was rock hard. I couldn't move it. Yeah. Wild. I can't believe you left it. You were so impressed with it at the time.

I know, it was a late night. Right, you're back in rehab. Don't forget to email us on. No Bowlspodcast at BBC.co.com. No ballspodcast at the BBC.co.com. It's so good. They said twice. You can also WhatsApp us on 030-123-1826.

Or text us on 8-1-1-1. And start your message with No. no balls all one word please so that we know it's for us i had something to sign the podcast off with oh bye and this is no balls the magic podcast this week we've barely talked about cricket i need to get the spoon i need to get finn it has finney text you back no no he hasn't he's probably like why is alick you text me who's the lemon at seven a m is that what you've said who's the lemon no i said he's got the lemon all right good i was going to say because you that's not Right. Who's 11? I'm 11.

Who's got the 11? I've got the lemon. Bye. The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup She does not fear a thing Hear the action with Radio 5 Sports Extra And keep up to date with the TMS podcast on BBC Sounds