Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - How Many Balls in a Season

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

As the summer of 2021 concludes, Kate and Alex decide if it was really long or really short. Plus, plenty of DM sliding and a few rogue emails to keep us busy.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. 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. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. and cross strikes in the first over it's what England we're looking for Hartley Falls down the track comes scoring this time

she connects it's either six or out it's six Hello and welcome back to snowballs Luss Hartley and you, Kate Cross Unprofessional Hartley I'm sat here with my microphone all sorted and you're in bed

and you're not even get your laptop with you honestly another stink and my laptop's right where you're sat on the sofa I've put it on your bed for you it was in the way thank you I left it there so I remember to bring it and the podcast equipment

did I remember to bring it? No no absolutely not how you doing I'm really tired You have you well Good start I've just woken up from a nap It's 7.30pm

Yeah That's how I'm feeling What about you? Do you know what? I'm all right I've had a shocking journey home So we left Canterbury Honestly I could have flown from France quicker

Than the drive back from Canterbury It took me six hours Shambles That is a shambles I mean it's a long way When you're in Canterbury You are closer to France Than you are home

You're closer to most European cities Than Manchester I reckon So far away And I feel like Whoever planned the summer Really didn't think about The Northern girls When they finished it in Canterbury

Maybe they live in Canterbury Mr Fixed Man or Woman Please put us at all traffic next year or something even i take edinley you had a family day didn't you which which was in canterbury yeah we'll go on to that because that's going to be part of my trough and peak of the week but um it was actually a really lovely evening um but yeah you're in london now yeah i am uh i'm here for until saturday because we've got the bob willis i know

so you're commentating on that it's nice to see you supporting the boys wearing your lanked shirt You absolute badger. Absolute badger. Come on the boys. Come on the Red Rose. So they're playing weird, isn't it? Because they didn't win the championship, Lancashire, we're talking about the men's cricket.

Lancashire didn't win the championship. But now they can compete for the Bob Willis trophy against the team that did win the championship. Yeah, right. So Warwick should have won the championship. They're going to be well up for the Bob Willis trophy. Try and do the double. Wait, are they?

Or are they going to be kind of. have hung over. Well, and then my thought is that the Lankis boys have lost the championship. They don't want to be playing in the probably final. I think it will be the other way around. I think the championship is what everyone wanted. And Lancashire now got a little bit of a point to prove because they didn't win that. But it was down to other results, wasn't it?

So they'd won their game. They did everything they could. And they were relying on Warwickshire to lose to Somerset. And then they didn't. So I think they're going to have a little bit of, you know, a bit of grip between their teeth. And I think they're going to try and win it. Do you know those likes boys They'll have just been out getting drunk

And going, oh well Hartley, Sam Hayne from Warwickshire message me Yes, today, Monday Saying congratulations on 50 ODI wickets I've just sobered up They finished six days ago No way are they turning up I love that

No way Oh gosh, yes, so I'm here You're at home, you got a bit of time off Yeah, I got three weeks off now oh and I'm going to book a holiday and honestly it feels like the last time we went on holiday or I went on holiday

was when we went on that bloody cruise and that was like three years ago so I'm so excited to have a haul just it was two years ago was that all it was yeah because then COVID hit last year bloody COVID no I'm genuinely I've had

the best summer like I've had a summer to remember I've absolutely loved it I could carry on playing cricket. If we went on the tour to Pakistan, I would have been fine. But I'm so ready for some rest and relaxation and a bit of time at home and, you know, get ready to go again kind of thing. Oh, where are you going to go on holiday? What are you going to do? I don't know yet. I don't know. We'll have a look at it. But come on. We need to have a chat. I've got sticky notes to get through

and we've got Traff and Peak of the week to do. What do you want to start with? And we're going to do some emails. Yes. We open the DMs. We've got so many people DM in us. Okay. Love that so we do trough and peak of the week peak of the week it's back for the third week running it was a bit crap last week yeah it was a bit crap but it's always the whole podcast yeah oh shambles everyone that said that they enjoyed last week so you must have been drunk because it was terrible or they're just true fans yeah i can i can probably say it now but you remember i said like i'm a bit flat bit tired yeah we were in the middle of that incident where we'd

had a potential threat to the team. And we were stuck in the hotel in Stratford. We couldn't leave because of that. And then I think, why was I recording a podcast on the day that we were getting potentially threatened as a team? Yeah, a bit bizarre, but we thought let's pass some time and do the podcast. Just in case, let's get another episode out.

So we just whack one out. Oh, it's always best when you just wipe them out. yeah podcast purposes go on then what's your trough or peak of the week I'm going to start with my trough of the week and oh I've come home again

been away for three weeks I've come home now and it's tidy I know it's tidy it's not no tidy's a strong word I wouldn't say tidy it's definitely tidier than when I last came home there's I don't know what you've been doing

in the fridge. But I've had to throw away something which you told me was mayonnaise and it now looks like marmalade. So I was cleaning that out for ten minutes. There's cupboards open again. Cupboards open? Yeah. You just must leave the cupboards open. I don't know how you manage it.

Well, do you know why? It's easier to leave them open than it is to shut them. What? Then you don't have to keep opening them when you need stuff out of them. Anyway, it's better than it was when I last came home. So there is a drastic improvement. So well done you. but you definitely didn't have a clean before you left.

No, I did. Well, I had a hurry. I had a hurry round. You've not done a round at all. There's crumbs on the top, which I mean I know that you've not because that's not like you. Yeah, honestly, that's where I'm at with life at the minute.

I think that could be my trough of the week. There's your trough of the week. Crumbs on the top of the counter. It's not bad, actually. If that's your trough of the week, then you're doing all right. No, I've got a peak at a trough and peak of the week. But do you want to do your peak first? No, you go.

My, well, my trough and peak are kind of the same thing. So I'll do peak first. My peak of the week is I'm going on holiday. I'm going to Santorini and I'm going with my mum and I can't wait for a bit of a holiday. Like, not at a holiday since the last time we went. Three years ago. Three years ago. Do you know what though?

There's a bit of backstory to that, isn't there? Because we probably have touched on this on the podcast, but we were going to go to Santorini on the cruise, we went to bed, we'd left Mikanos, we woke up, we're in Corfu, and we meant to be in Saterini, and they'd basically cancelled that part of the trip because it was too windy. Yeah, so I'm going to Sanzerini. We looked at going to Sanzerini together. Yeah.

But the dates don't work. So my trough of the week is that I'm doing four days on my own. I mean, that might be a good thing for you. Yeah, I think so. It's kind of sad. is like when have I got to that point in life when I've got no friends to go on holiday with it's not that you've got no friends to go on holiday with it's the fact that you knew that you were getting a holiday a week ago and you can't just ask your friends to take time off

and I'm in the same predicament can't just make my friends take time off in two weeks time because they've got real life job yeah so yeah it is quite difficult and a lot of the girls are going away together but I was a little bit like I need to kind of not be around cricketers for a while, I think. I just need a proper break. Yeah. So yeah. My peak of the week is I'm going to Santa Fe in the traffic.

My week is going on my own. Or at least we won't see any of it on social media or anything because it's not like you can have someone to talk to. Maybe you'll see more. That's what I'm saying. Oh, God. Anyway, what's your peak of the week? Peak of the week is a really self-proclaimed one.

and I don't normally do this, but I'm going to do it once. I reached a mile, pardon? And once only. Once only. I reached a milestone that I never, certainly this time last year, never imagined that I was going to get to. And I'm really kind of proud of it. I've got 50 one-day international wickets.

I mean, how good. There's a video on Twitter of your little face when you hear the announcement that you've got 50 wickets and you've got the biggest grin on your face ever. Do you know what? It's funny that because people assume that they know what's going on when they hear things and see things. And there's a bit where I'm putting my hat on

and talking to Heather, isn't there? Yeah. And she actually turned to me and she went, do you fancy one more over? And it would have been my eighth over in a row. Yeah. And I was smiling going, yeah, yeah, I will, yeah. That'll be great.

And then when I'm putting my heart on, and then the announcer announces it, Glennie ran past me and says something to me. Nothing about my wickets. She just says a little thing to me that's a little personal joke and that's what I was laughing at. Oh, how funny. Yeah, so I always get really,

you know when like you go to the crowd when you take a wicket and they clap? I was got really embarrassed by that because I'm like, oh, what do you do? Like, oh, thanks, put your phone up, nice, cheers. Yeah, just giving me a little wade. But I just didn't know what to do when the announcer announced it yesterday.

I was like, oh, thanks. So it was actually quite helpful that Glennie ran past. Yeah, and made it look like. you're smiling at the announcer. Yeah. Yeah, nice. Yeah. But it was like, I saw a really lovely tweet actually.

I'm not going to go and find it because it'll probably take me a while because we've had loads of no balls tweets recently. But someone tweeted basically saying, oh, it was on the back of your tweet actually saying you're proud best friend. And someone replied along the lines of day one listeners can also really appreciate what this achievement is because they know what I've gone through. and this time last year we literally recorded a podcast

when I was sadder than sad and thinking about retiring from cricket and I guess when you do your interviews and stuff and you get like 45 seconds to talk on Sky about what it means to reach a milestone like that but no one really sees what goes into it

but because we... Yeah and you can't explain it can you in 45 seconds no you can't do it justice and I think that was one of the main reasons we wanted to start this podcast wasn't it that you give a real insight into what professional sport is like and the ups and the downs

and I think we've been so honest about that all the way through that the outpouring that I got yesterday and the messages that I got were just so sincere and so lovely and I was so overwhelmed by it all and it's kind of all been a bit of a whirlwind this summer but like I said I've loved it

and yeah I was just quite emotional with it so it's my peak of the week and so it should be crossy because you've got 50 international wicket and that is world class. It's just mad, isn't it? And I also, this week as well, shouldn't be another people the week,

scored more runs than wickets taken. International cricket. Someone tweeted me to tell me. Great. Thanks. Thanks, yeah. I was like 51 runs and 347 wickets or something at the time. I love that. I love that. You were also, you're also the joint four.

fastest Englishman woman you know what I'm to 50 wickets yeah is that that impressive I don't know I don't think it is there's only three other people ahead of you they've got to 50 wickets quick

that's why I'm four quicker and one of them so vehicle stood is like the goat of cricket yeah to be honest it's all been a bit random because I've taken loads of wickets this summer which is not like me my role in the team to do that. My role's to be boring and get wickets for Sophie at the other end

or Anja or Catherine. But I've had loads this summer, so I must have been dead crap at the start of my career. Do you know what I mean? What have you been doing? What was I doing in those first 20 games where I was just plodding on, taking like one wicket every six games? Yeah, how are you still there? No wonder I had that mental breakdown. Bloody hell, that was crap. Tell you what was good yesterday The fact that you finished your last game You were able To socialise with the general public

We were and the first thing we did Went to a club And got a VIP area And went away from everyone else Yeah, we're in a nightclub in a VIP area So we didn't get COVID Because we didn't want to touch anyone So we can go on our holidays

Oh funny funny Have you got anything on your sticking I've got a few things, yeah. We've got something quite big to talk about, Al. Is it the batter-batsman thing? No, no, we don't talk about anything cricket related on this podcast. Right, because that's on my sticky. Right, is it? All right, we'll touch on that in a minute. Let's do a little bit of admin. I can't see you. You've gone off. Yeah, because you know, I'm not got my, I'm on my phone, so you have to go on my sticking out. We've got something to tell people that we're doing on Sunday.

Right. We didn't want to say anything because we weren't sure if we were allowed to for a start, but it's happening. It is. We, I mean, we put him on the spot, didn't we? And we wanted to find out who it was that didn't want us to do the crossover. With the tail enders. The tail enders. And we're not doing a crossword. over? Well, we are. We're doing a live one. We're doing the Manchester Apollo live show on the 3rd of October, which is your 30th birthday. With Greg James, Felix White and Jimmy Anderson and Matching, they've invited us onto their actual real live show in front of real life people. And we've not even been on their podcast yet. How terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. It's all right because we're going to be drunk. We've already

planned it, haven't we? We're going to go out for a few drinks before it, and then we'll just blame everything on the alcohol if it's crap. But I was thinking, you're going out for a meal beforehand with your parents. So I was thinking, I'll just have a little glass of particular on my own in the house. Calm the nurse. I'll meet you there. I've planned some timing for us to have a drink in Manchester beforehand. So if anyone is going to the show on Sunday, we kind of need a bit of support, don't we? We need like a few psychopaths to be there or some spuds or something to make us look good. Yeah, because our biggest fear is that we're going to go on the tail enders and nobody's going to know who we are. Everyone's going to be like, who are these two fans that

have won the opportunity to go on stage with these three? And it's going to be awesome. Yeah, not good. But thinking about it, because there was obviously someone who didn't want us on the crossover, we'd still don't know who it is we'll have to get maybe that can be how we first start talking on the show is how we yeah find it out who it was but jimmy must have given them some decent feedback about our podcast for them to then invite us on the live show maybe that was like to test the waters yeah maybe he's like i'll go test the waters see if these girls are all right or they've taken the piss out of me let's go yeah maybe that's what because we actually put the phone that well put the zoom down didn't we and oh god we didn't ask the best bowl of

in the world, anything about bowling? Yeah, but that's all, that's what we do. No balls, isn't it? It's no balls. Yeah. Yeah, that's top of my sticky note, that one. I'm going to delete it now. Goodbye. Third of October, Manchester Apollo. No balls are great podcast. Live crossover with the tail enders.

I can't wait for us to record this podcast next Monday and probably be massively hung over because I'm going out three times next weekend for my birthday and us be on like workout we've been on their show for like three minutes that's all we got we thought we're doing the whole show and we've been on the stage of three minutes and got booted off or something yeah nice that's so us um top of my sticking out is actually something really important okay the batter batsman debate it's not a debate I mean right for all the people that are offended by batsmen turning into batter

I think just wake up and get in the bin Yeah you've got to get in the bin haven't you Because I noticed on Twitter The only people who were offended by it Or had any negative connotation about You know the rules of changing And it's not batsman anymore, it's batter Were men

Middle age men I saw a few young people I saw a few old people But it was all men And the problem with that is And this, if anyone saw my tweet, I'm just going to regurgitate it. If you have always had language that involves you, batsman, third man, night watchman, everything involves male people, you're never going to feel excluded. But for me and you growing up, we never had anything to do with women in cricket.

It was always a male sport, gentleman sport. So for us, it's a huge step. It's massive. And it's not a big deal. It really isn't. Like, it blew my mind how many people got offended and had to say something about it on social media this week. Yeah, it blew my mind how big everyone made

something that should have just been swept under the carpet and just everyone should have just been like, yeah, cool. There's bowler, there's fielder, there's batter. Yeah, and everyone then got offended, not even offended, but they were like, well, he's batter the right word, it's very American. you go out and you bat you're a bat oh my god i'm so totally a better are people going to get really confused because they're not called hitters oh do you know what i'm going to go out and i am such a better now and then when a ball i'm a ball a lot like this yeah mental the world's

literally a bit upside down isn't it and there's all sorts going on in the cricketing world at the minute like we spoke about not being able to go to pakistan and threats and things like that and People getting caught up in a batsman batter debate with Izzy Westbrook on Twitter. It's mental. Talking of the world being upside down. I queued for 57 minutes today to put £45 worth of petrol in my car. Yeah, again, this was something that I had to tell you about. Do you remember when you were in Australia?

And I was like, Al, you need to come home because there's a massive pandemic about to happen. And you're like, nah, fine. Nothing's happening over here. All good. and then the other day you were like yeah there was massive cues for I was only like to put 30 quid in I was like yeah there's a massive shortage of like lorry drivers it's a big deal at the minute and you just didn't know just didn't have a clue and then I just sat the services for 57 minutes today and I could only put £45 in but I had to fill up because I wouldn't have made it to London my um my parents came down

to Canterbury oh I said I was going to talk about that in peak of the week and I just didn't um We had a family day on Saturday night, so the ECB, PCR tested our families, and obviously if they were able to travel to France to come and watch us play cricket, then they could come down. And my mum and dad came down, but I was similar to you. I was running out of petrol. I had like 60 miles left, 300 and odd miles to get home as well today. And my mum and dad blessed them.

They went and found a petrol station on Sunday morning and filled my car up for me. Well, I saw them Sunday morning. I was walking to the ground and a cinchmobile went past and I went that's Dave and Christine crossing cross his car I said oh my God she's not playing

and she said what what I'm like what on earth's happened now anyway why that mean I'm not playing I don't know I thought you're injured they were taking you somewhere I don't know I just catastrophized massively

and then I walked in the back gate into it was your mum and dad and I was like you're right why are you in cross his car Oh, we just thought we'd fill it up for her. I was like, well, that girl's pulled a blinder because you just filled the car up. Honestly, what heroes.

Not all heroes wear capes. And, yeah, they had to pay my parking as well, which was £20 overnight. So they had an expensive Sunday morning. Fantastic. There was just another bit of admin that I thought I'd touch on, but we've had a few tweets of people who are new listeners from the BBC and put off again.

Yeah, I know because I'm just reading my sticking out. Yeah, but you need to pay attention. I am paying attention. So we've had a few people tweeting us who are new fans from the BBC and they don't know that we've got 80 episodes or so on our old platform. Yeah, we have. It's on all your podcast providers. They've been pleasantly surprised.

So we are currently under the TMS provider. So that's how you find us. However, if you go on your podcast provider and type, type in no balls, you'll find all of our old episodes. And we'd probably advise you not to listen to the first few because they were dead shit. I listened to episode number three the other day and turned it off for seven minutes.

I was like, we used to be bad at podcasting. Yeah, we were quite bad. But what it is, it's the village podcast and it's raw, it's authentic, and it's me and you. It's us. So yeah, go back and listen to them because a few people have been tweeting and saying, oh my God, there's 80 more episodes we did not know about.

So there you go. Well, they're there. Do you know how we're always really totally honest on this podcast, and it's just me and you? I had the most horrific anxiety day the other day, didn't I? Yeah, you did. Oh, my God. It was that bad.

My fitness band that I wear on my wrist thought I'd done a run. It's the whoops that we wear. they're actually they're a bit eye-opening, aren't they? When you have days like that because I remember I had a day after the 100 we'd been out for a drink and I'm always really, really anxious

after I've had alcohol and my whoop was like a medium day of like activity and it was purely because of the anxiety of what alcohol does to you and going on the night out but it's yeah I remember you texted me

I hadn't been out of the night before yeah I hadn't been out or anything I just had a really bad day. Yeah. It happens though, doesn't it? And I think that was one of the first days as well that you'd stopped and sat and had a day in the flat as well where you literally no cricket to worry about, no training to worry about, no comms to worry about. So it probably all hit you at once, didn't it? It did. I was just sat in the flat like, there's no work, there's no cricket, there's no this, what do I do? Where's my life going? What am I doing? I'm a bored? Am I not bored?

Where's my house at? What's going on? I don't know what to think. Do you know what you should have done you should have actually gone out for a run i know i know i should have done but i was so mentally tired and my ticker was working over overtime anyway doing it anyway that's what you need actually just have anxious days and you burn all the cows yeah have you got anything else or you sticking out i do yeah i've got something this is so rogue i've got written down here traumatic ghost dreams okay Me, you and Henry Twofingers sent a meme to each other the other the other day, didn't we? About everyone has got a dream that they had as a kid that they really vividly remember.

Yeah. And you told us yours. Which is, it's a live game of Mario Kart, but it's me and my friends driving around a track like Mario Kart. But we're getting bombed, which is not funny. No, it's a traumatic ghost dream. it's not funny. Traumatic ghost story. We're getting bombed. My car gets bombed and I get out the car, survive it. And I have to run around the track. But I can't run. My legs don't work. And then

everybody gets blown up bar me. And it's really sad. Traumatic ghost dream. And then I voice noted my traumatic ghost dream as well. And a similar thing, but I was at the cricket club and there'd been a car crash on the far side of the pitch. And the car had hit a tree. And the ghost like came out of the car of the people that had died in this. crash and like made their way over the pitch in and we were all in the cricket club and they were trying to get in the cricket club and like that it's just traumatic of them trying to sneak under the door and things like that and I just vividly remember and I had it probably at least five times in my childhood.

Henry two fingers. Every two fingers came in with this. Imagine if you hadn't seen a little bit about those being dreams. And then you just listen to those two audio messages, your two dreams. And you're like, these are things that Kate and Alex are actually recounting as having happened. Like, wow, scary dreams. I used to have one when I was, I was, like, rolled up into a ball and bounced around by ghosts. Like, I was like the object of the game.

Very scary, very sad dream. I think it was the fact you just like, rolled up into a ball and just really like we were really sad about our dreams and really traumatised and H was obviously really traumatised by his and we found it so funny

just bounced around by ghosts it's like crack the egg on a trampoline and I had in my head that these ghosts must have been quite happy to be playing a game with him and he was like no no no they weren't they were mean ghosts but the way he said it sounds like it was great

The pin of ball I've bounced around by ghost Oh, I'd love to hear everyone else These traumatic ghost stories though Yeah, send them us them in Speaking of everyone else Yeah You're done with you sticking out

Well, I've actually got a little quiz for you Oh, all right, okay So You played a lot of cricket this year, England women More so than usual Yeah So I've got a one-off question for you and you either win or you don't win.

Okay. How many balls did England women bowl this international summer? What? Why is anyone going to want to hear me try and work that out? Because people do. This is like Stephen Finn all over again. Right. All together England women's cricketers?

Yeah. Right. Well, I saw a stat the other day on hypercourse Twitter account, but Sophie Eccleston had bowled the most and she bowled 860 odd or something then. Saw that so many. I mean 820 of them were in the test match.

So then Siver was next. Then me and Catherine I think weren't too far behind Siver which actually I thought was quite impressive by me because I've not played any T20s, so I bowled a lot of balls. Right, I need to get my calculator out because I'm terrible at maths. I'm going to use Sophie as the average. So I'm going to say the average is 6.50 per bowler times five minimum plus.

You're just like plus 20. Yeah, literally. I'm going to say, I think I'm really undercooked here, but I'm going to say 4,320. You've overcooked massively. 4,034. Look at my calculator. So why did you add 300 when you calculate it literally says 4,050? My answer was 4,050 and I gave, I just thought I'd add some on because I thought I'll have undercooked it.

So you got to give me a point for that. That is ridiculously close. That is really close, but you got it wrong because you added. No, I'm having that right, because look at that, 4,050. Yeah, but you. You didn't say that? Yeah, because I was just overestimating. Do you know how I got to this number?

Oh, God. This is going to be like on countdown where you've got to show you working now. So Sophie had bowled 800 and I reckon I bowled close to 500 so I was like, go middle of the road, 6.50, times it by five, five bowlers per game. And then that was that.

And then I added on 400 for the Charlie Dean's, Maddie Villiers, people who've kind of played, but not. And then I added on another 400 and then that was the number I got and I didn't say out loud. And then you added another 400 for the sake of it. And I didn't say it out loud. Well, pleased with that. Yeah, but you got it wrong. Oh. Well, thanks for that. That was my little fun game of the week. A little bit of mental maths at 9pm because you had a nap. Yeah, wanted to do how many balls is Kate Crossbowled this summer.

But in all honesty, I just couldn't be asked working it out. Right, nice, thanks. Shall we pick an umpire and go upstairs? I couldn't think of anything better than going upstairs with an umpire right now. Let's go with Paul Pollock. Or Ian Pollard. Or whoever they were. Go.

Dwayne Bravo. Paul Pollard, we're going upstairs with you. Lucky you. So I'm going to start with our Twitter DMs because I opened them up today, saying that we wanted some embarrassing. stories. We wanted some advice to give out because we love that. The first one that we got is from someone called Ross and it says cricket loving person here seeking single lady. Berkshire area unless Alex and Kate want to slum it with an average Joe.

So I think this is a proposal to go on a date with him unless there's someone in the Berkshire area who wants to go out with a cricket loving person. Hang on a minute. Is he using us as like a Tinder? I think so, yeah. Which I'm not sure is appropriate really, but you never know. If someone gets married on the back of the locker. No, just that. I just want to find someone. Oh, right. Oh, well, Ross, I hope you find a lovely lady. Good look. Let us know. Keep in touch. You got any more?

Loads more, Al. You open your DMs and everyone slides in. I should have opened mine years ago Do you want to go though? Yeah, I'll go and flick on our emails Hi Alex and Kate or Kate and Alex Whichever way around you're read Whichever way around is being read Hope you both well

I've been a fan of the pod since series two Having started listening after Hartley's viral moment with the headphone microphone when she couldn't get it in Because it was too hard Throw back Oh my God, I forgot about that it's been a brilliant summer of cricket

and the comms on the 5th LDI at Canterbury was a great way to finish my favourite commentator Henry and my favourite summariser Hartley commentating while my favourite batter Tammy Beaumont gets 100 and my favourite bowler Kate Cross reaches 50 wickets

Crossy is also my joint favourite England international alongside Chris Wokes Nice On a more serious note I'd like to thank you both For the past 18 months or so It's been a tough time for everybody and I'm no exception. Having had a bit of a breakdown last year and still struggling most days with depression, anxiety and insomnia, you two have helped me a lot. In interviews on comms on the podcast, you've not been shy about discussing mental health and how it affects you and how you get through the dark times. Just as important, on the field, you've done everything with such a sense of joy and while you clearly take your career seriously, you don't take it that serious. And you always make it look and sound like you're having so much fun and enjoying yourself. Even when things weren't great on the

field during the 100 or the second half of the Rachel, Hayho and Lottie competition, you look like you were still always having fun, always playing with a smiles on your faces and never giving up. Put all of that together, it's just so inspirational, to be honest. I do have questions about bowling actions. Watching Crossy Bowl, she reminded me a lot like Alan Donald. So I was wondering who did influence your bowling action? Was it modelled on somebody or is it just something that you developed naturally with somebody coaching you? And similarly for Hartley, how did you end up with your bowling action? Have you ever hit an umpire? You get asked that a lot, don't you? Yeah. Um, yeah, so did you model your bowling action off

anyone or was it just you? Yeah, I don't think so. I remember, I've changed my bowling action in the last couple of years and I, that wasn't really modelled on anyone. I don't know, I don't think I ever did model it on someone. I obviously watched a lot of cricket on the TV and tried to emulate what I was watching but I didn't have a specific bowler other than Andrew Flintoff that I love watching but I don't bowl anything like him I think like bowling is just something that you do naturally because it's such an unnatural movement you can't copy somebody that is definitely going to be in the no context Hartley quote bowling is so unnatural it's just something that you naturally do yeah do you know what I mean I know exactly what you mean but yeah it's an unnatural

movement and you have to find your own way of doing it that's comfortable Yeah, I have hit umpires with my bowling action because if they don't stand where I asked them to, they get hit in the midrift or the chest region and sometimes when they don't move, if I may or may not do it on purpose. Finally, I'm with Crossie on dipping paninis in sauce and with Hartley biting ice creams.

Completely agreed that the more women's matches should be played in the north and can't believe it didn't happen this year. Also need more test matches, delighted that Hartley will be on comms for the Bob Willis final and Crossy, happy birthday for next week, this week, last week, depending on when you read this email. We're on top of things if we're doing it the week before.

I know, so, yeah, great email that, actually. Lovely, really nice email. And sorry to hear that you've had a tough time, and I know we bang on about this so much on the pod, but we feel like we get a lot of that feedback and we get a lot of people getting in touch with how tough they've found the pandemic. It is completely normal.

You are allowed to have good days. You're allowed to have bad days. you've got to ride the wave, haven't you? And you've got to keep doing the things that you know help you, even if it's the last thing you want to do. There's something every single day that makes you smile. Like recording a podcast? Yes.

This is back into RDMs. As the summer of cricket comes to an end, mental, by the way, that we've finished this season. Right, this is how I summed up this summer to my big boss, Adam Malford. I said, it's gone really, really. fast but also felt like it's gone on forever it's gone really fast and it feels like it's gone on forever but we have done so much in it yeah it's like how how we packed all our cricket into the last three months is beyond me yeah mental absolutely mental what has been your

favourite moment of the summer wow uh i know what you're going to say do you yeah go on The first night of the 100. Do you know what? That's up there. That is up there. But my actual favourite part of the summer, I wasn't involved in. It was at the Oval. And Ravi Bapara.

Dive to stop a cricket ball and his trousers fell down. And he had these white budgy smugglers on. Oh, no. And that, ladies and gents, was my favourite part of the summer because it's something that hardly ever happens and when it does, it's the funniest thing ever. It is brilliant when it does happen. My favourite part of the summer,

I literally, for the first time in my life, I've got loads to pick from. But I think it would be the night out that we had after the 100 in Nottingham. We all went out as Manchester Originals crew and we were so hung over when we recorded the podcast the next day but it was just one of the best nights that I've ever had. It was amazing and I'd do it all again if I could.

And I'm never going to be able to replicate that night ever again because those people will never be in that situation again. No, we were saying that on the night, that group of people never all play for Manchester Originals again altogether. Do you know what, crossy, like the whole summer has been, there's obviously been some low lights, but this year has been a massive highlight. Yeah. I saw Adam Collins last night after Canterbury after our game.

And he was talking to me and he said, oh, you must be so pleased with your summer. and I said to him and it sounds so strange for me to say this but I feel like I've had my breakout year and I'm turning 30 which is mental because I should have done this when I was like 23, 24 but

yeah but you played cricket in such a strange time as well like Catherine and Anya just opening the ball in Jenny gun like you just have to wait for all those people to do to hear yeah maybe but yeah it's just

just it's honestly it's been incredible hasn't it like i'm going to i'll tell my kids about 2021 and how much we got up to and what we did and also and the cricket and also the podcast like i feel like the podcast has become such a bigger part of our lives this year obviously because we're on the BBC but i sent you that thing the other day we got advertised in between the one show and pointless the other day me and you how good is that what is happening I mean I'm really proud of us for this podcast so am I really proud of us and I even had a little bit of merchandise with me on the back end of the tour so I was um got that in as many photos as I could yeah and that's good from you you got another one yeah always

hi Kate and Alex I'm confused and here's why I heard you both say on your truly excellent podcast previously that women's cricket don't play enough cricket and probably spend too much time training, especially in contrast with the men. However, as we have now completed 2021 season, I've seen a few folk on social media state that the women must be knackered given all the international and regional cricket that has gone on. And one or two have speculated that this is why we've seen so many batting collapses from the top middle order in recent weeks, both international and regionally. More importantly, I don't recall seeing any player actually say this. Obviously, it's been far from a normal season, both with ongoing

COVID team management scenarios, bubbles, etc. And the introduction of the 100 tournament, but has it been too much cricket? Given you both have done double duty as commentators throughout the summer as well as playing, you both must be truly knackered. Seriously, what should take? Tim, one of the USA listeners,

Southwest Florida, in my case. I actually have a lot to say on this. And we've always said in the past, haven't we, that we train too much and don't play enough. And this year has been the anomaly, because we've actually played more cricket because of the regional set up and the fact there's the Rachel Haleigh of

the Trophy in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. But internationally we've had two tours, which not that unusual. No. But it's been the 100 that it's not necessarily the volume of the cricket. We've probably played four more games than we would have done if we were playing in the Super League.

But it was the intensity of that tournament. Yeah. That was like international. cricket, that was like a World Cup, you know. Yeah, I was going to say that that was bigger than international cricket as an intensity of it. Yeah, that was like a, it's own mini tournament, wasn't it? It was so, it was kind of thrust on us because we didn't know what to expect, but that was mentally draining in itself. And normally when we would have preparation for international series, so like we went into the New Zealand series after the

100, we'd normally have 10 days or so. There was literally like a three week, a three day gap, sorry, where you were at home and then you were prepping to go into the next series. So it kind of all came really thick and fast, which I think is brilliant. And it's not that there's been too much cricket, but we're just not used to the volume of cricket yet. Yeah. It's definitely not been too much cricket. It's what we've been after for years and years and playing weekly consistently is what we want to be doing. But we're just not used to it. And the other thing, which I'm never going to be able to portray. this unless you lived with us in the bubble but the the COVID environments that we've lived in

this summer are mentally draining and I genuinely I was talking to the guy who does the content in our England squad last night about this and a couple of the partners have been in the bubble for the last couple of weeks and they're the only people who are genuinely going to know what it feels like to live in that you know that restriction when there's no restriction anywhere else and how mentally tiring it is to not be able to get away and do the things that you normally do to get yourself away from cricket. It hit me last

night when one of the players turned around and went, I feel like I'm on day release. Yeah, like and we were in a really crap club in Canterbury. On the precious. It's full of 18 years. Yeah. But

it's been so I remember using a like manufactured is probably the only word that I can think of to describe what the bubbles have been like and honestly everyone who doesn't play professional sport argues that they probably could like everyone has got their two pennies to put in about performances and how they would do things and it's so easy from the side until you're in that you can't explain it then you add the COVID bubble on top of it and the fatigue that that brings and not being able to see I got to hug my mum and dad on Saturday for the first time in four weeks.

Yeah, mental. And then the first time that I got to hug them in that was before the 100. Yeah. So the sacrifices that everyone has made this summer to play sport, I think I've mentioned it on the pod a couple of weeks ago, but it kind of gets forgotten about because there's live sport on telly again. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I'm being quite preaching here, but it is.

Preach it, it's been a great. Preach it, preach to the Congress. I'm trying to do an American accent, it won't come out. We are tired, but we've not, we've not pretended that we're not tired. We've all kind of admitted that and we know that we need a bit of time off, but we're going to be ready to go for the ashes again in January. And I'll be ready to go in April. I've got loads of time off, baby.

Loads of time. Next one in the DMs. Can you add me on Snapchat, Alex? Oh, for goodness sake. That's a no. I'll go on to the next one. Wait, hang on. Hang on. I'm not said, no. I have. You're not giving out your Snapchat on here. A question for you. I lead girls cricket coaching at my club and love it. What's the one main thing that you would want me to instill in the girls? Obviously love for the game, but specifically for girls. Enjoyment. Keep them interested. Keep them engaged. That's three things I know, but it all comes into one for me. I think girls...

can quite easily get bored of, I'm talking boys, but of cricket, it's not a game where everyone's involved at the same time. It's one of those where your bowler and your batter are involved. And that's it. But if there's a way to keep everybody engaged, everybody having fun, that will keep people in the game. Yeah.

I think my thing would be, now certainly around like the visibility that we've had in the 100, but like show them how powerful it can be to be a female athlete and how cool it can be because when I was a kid it wasn't cool playing cricket was not cool

and being a girl playing cricket certainly wasn't cool but now I feel like it's changing a little bit there'll be girls out there that want to be Kate Cross and there'll be girls out there that want to be Alex Hartley which is mental

because we never had that absolutely not did we but there's yeah I think the engagement thing is a big one but the enjoyment fact too has been our big thing awesome hasn't it we've said we wanted to enjoy it win or lose just keep enjoying what you're doing because at the end of the day you're playing sport for a living and we're never going to be able to do this for the rest of our lives yeah you've got any more DMs yeah oh we've got loads this might be something that we can keep ticking over maybe

I'll close them tonight and then we can start again next week hi heartley high crossy you guys have been amazing and congratulations crossy for your 50 wickets you guys have inspired me a lot in a way that I can still stay connected to my passion. So thanks a lot. Just one question. If you guys can answer, can you tell us that ball during Australia and India's second ODI by Julan to carry was a no ball or not? Yeah, I did. I did as well. I watched it. We had a game so I didn't see it live, but I watched it later and I do think it was a noble. I think it was the right call. Yeah, I was watching it. And as much as I really wanted India to win, I was shouting at the telly going, it's a no ball. It's a no ball. Just give it a

noble. It was above the waist height, therefore it's a noble. Yeah, it was, wasn't it? And that series was incredible, wasn't it? And we've got to mention the fact that Australia have lost their winning street now. Finally, everybody is so happy that that is over. I know. There's part of me that's a little bit sad. I'm not sad at all. I'm not, I mean, I'm not sad, but, like, 26 games in a row is so good. I was thinking, I wonder what they can get to. do you know what we've not got our guests this week because we've been so busy and flying around up and down the country we've not got swanee doing some IPL correspondence so i thought i'd do the IPL corresponding today and okay the only thing

that i've got to talk about in the IPL this week is that CSK beat RCB for the second time this season brilliant I've got nothing to add to that conversation yeah it's funny because you're so lively on twitter all the time when it comes to RCB and then you still not replied to my tweet about you being quiet when we beat you. Yeah, do you not, right, Crassy, the one day I had with my mum and didn't take my phone anywhere with me, the one day that me and Julia Hartley spent together just so happened that RCB and CSK were playing together and I had a day away from my phone in social media. Can't have a day away from your phone when the IPO's on now?

Well, I did and it was bliss and I didn't have to listen to you going on about CSK being brilliant. I didn't go on. Yes, you've got a well-rounded team. Yes, you've got. a well-balanced squad. How's the water down there? Yeah, it's hard. Look at me, I'm getting frustrated.

I can tell, buddy. Right, let's finish on this one. Hi, both. Not a question, but just remembered one of my favourite specky assist. Hashtag, specky assist only, hashtag assist speckies only. Whichever way around it is.

Yeah, whichever way. We can't remember. It was from earlier this year during the White Ball series for the men in India, where Chris Jordan ran about a quarter of a lap of the boundary, caught the ball, under-armed it to Jason Roy, who held the ball

and just stood and laughed knowing he was going to be the one that got the catch in the scorer's books. What a catch. Was that this year? Are you sure that was this year? I don't. That feels like it was about 18 months ago. Do you know what?

That's what I mean when the season's gone on forever, but it's also gone really quick. Yeah, you're right. Guys, if you want to get in touch, please email us on. no balls podcast at bbc.co.c.com.com. No balls podcast at bbc.com.com. It's so good. They said it twice.

I hate to sneeze. It won't come out. Wow. On that note. Thank you so much for listening to this, absolutely shambles again. Hopefully we might see you live at the Manchester Apollo on Sunday evening if you're there

chuck a spud at us do something do something do something it's crossies 30 take her a present buy her a drink do whatever

yeah yeah but let's turn tail enders live into no balls life come on guys and if it's good enough maybe we're in the market

for a tour next year oh you heard it here first whoa bye bye everyone and cross strikes in the first over. It's what England we're looking for. Hartley Bowls.

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