Test Match Special - No Balls: The Cricket Podcast - ODI victory, stolen mugs and more(!) Hartley fielding heroics

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

Fresh from a big performance against India in the first ODI, Kate Cross joins Alex Hartley to talk about England's white-ball series. Look out for some memorable emails, too.

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Partly balls. Down the track comes scoring. This time she connects. It's either six or out. It's six. Hello and welcome back to No. Balls of Cricket podcast with me Kate Cross and you, Alex Hartley. What are you sniggering for?

Because we've just had a bit of an argument off air. Off air. And because, I mean, I'm living in your house and I've just made myself a coffee and I used the mug with K on it. And you've properly nailed me for it and I feel a bit uncomfortable. Because, yeah, I'm uncomfortable about it as well because that is a personal mug that someone got me as a gift. and there's like six or seven other mugs

that are just generic mugs that you could use quite happy I'd be really happy if you use those but you've chosen the one that has got my initial on it like it's weird it's not weird I needed a brew I needed a brew it's the biggest mug it's not the biggest mug because I nicked one from Starbucks and that's the biggest mug that's still in there

well what you're lying for so if this podcast is a shambleses because we've actually fallen out and there won't be an episode next week. Yeah, this might be our first argument ever and it's live on a podcast. But yeah, just put that one to the back of the cupboard

and don't use that one. All right, okay. I do apologise. Maybe I just subconsciously picked it up because I miss you. Oh, don't give me that. Don't give me that rubbish. I just really miss you.

Nah, not having that. Move on. But also, like, now I'm in your house and now I'm going to feel really uncomfortable about using everything else. No, just don't use anything that's got my personal name on it. And then you got all sarky

and you're like, oh, can I use this pint? ass. Piss off. I'm going to write. Anyway. Good start. Welcome back to Noble.

Welcome back to Noble. It's a cricket podcast. Crossie's grumpy today. I'm grumpy today. She just had a massage, so I'm worried. She's not going to be very funny. I'm not grumpy. I was grumpy when I saw using my mug.

I'm tired, is what I am out. And I genuinely, so today is Monday. We just played a one-day game yesterday. We beat India. and I've honestly woken up worse than some of the days in the test match I wonder why that is I suppose like it's more intense isn't it

yeah I think that's it well actually yesterday's game wasn't yeah but I know what you mean it probably lacked intensity in some respects but in terms of like as a fielder you're running around a lot more and you like I was running from long gone to deep square to long on

so I was all over the place yesterday so yeah I'm just tired but a good first win on the board Yes, yes, very good first win. I hope you don't interview me this time. I'm not, I don't like that last week. No, no, I'm not into that. But what I would like to say, Crossie, before we start this podcast properly

is can I have a brew out of that mug? No, I'm joking. Well bowled yesterday. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Hal. Yeah, you actually bowled really well. I had people texting me saying, bloody hell, Crossie's is bowling well? I was like, yeah, she plays for England.

No, you know what? I said to you earlier in the week, didn't you? I didn't think I was going to play? obviously there's like probably a spot up for grabs between me and Freya and I was not worried about it. I think New Zealand taught me that nothing is given in this environment and you've just got to work hard. But I genuinely do feel like I've been bowling as well as I have ever bowled.

And I just set myself up that if I wasn't going to play it, it was going to be fine. I'd be a bit gutted but there's nothing else I could have done. So you actually text me the day before being like, just going to go meet Henry for a takeaway beer. And I was like, oh no. There's only one reason. she's having a takeaway beer and it means she's not playing yeah that was really weird you're

like are you okay i'm here if you need me i was like yeah i'm fine i'm just with people like i'm just not texting you back you like no honestly if you need me i'm here i'm like i'm fine i'm just not on my phone well because you said you said in a group chat we're in i'm a bit like i'm starting to feel the bubble life i was like oh no she's gone she's going well no i was just i think i'm yeah well you definitely did but i'm actually i'm fine i've said this to you in tech so you'll be board of hearing this but we've been in bristol now for like 10 days so i've been in this same hotel room for 10 days we're not allowed we can go get a coffee there's one bar that does take away drinks that you can go to but you've got to sit on a train track so it's just got a bit samey to be

honest honestly i'll i've got a picture of me and then we two fingers on a train track and i was like we should never put this anywhere because it looks awful oh god so you're all right it's a used a disused train track just letting people know i am fine right good I'm glad you're fine because obviously last year bubble life hit you really hard and well team environment life hit you really hard so when you said I'm a bit flat

I was like here we go again We've also had a really weird week in terms of we've stayed in Bristol because we played the test here in the first ODI here but there was a weird phase of like building back into cricket once we'd had a couple of days off from the test match

and the intensity that you have at those training days is quite low and we didn't have a proper like really competitive training session until the Friday before we played on the Sunday. So we were all kind of just waiting for that to happen, whereas now we go in travel, train, play, travel, train, play for the rest of this series. So it's going to go a lot quicker, I think.

Okay, well that's good. And you're all right, so that's even better. I'm just grumpy because you use my mug. Yeah, just let it go. I'm actually using everything in this house. Yeah, but again, you wouldn't use something that was personalised to me. You wouldn't put my cricket shirt on, would you? I'll just go and take your knickers off then.

Oh, don't make it weird. Don't make it weird. Anyway, no, we don't need to get into this. How are you? I'm all right, thank you. I have done a thousand miles and I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be. Just to see, watch crossy play cricket again. I'm actually really good, thank you.

I am so tired because I've done a thousand miles. up and down the country. I've been Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Taunton. Headingley. Hellingly. Headingley. Shall we talk about that? Shall we talk about Headingley? Drop that one in there. Right. That's on my sticky note. So I'm all right. Thank you. Right, let's move on then. Get to your sticky note. Come on. Should we talk about Headingley? Shall we? crossy we beat yorkshire or northern diamonds sorry basically yorkshire for the first time in a very long time at headingly at a double header as well like could there have been a better setting and not only did you beat them

you pretty much thrashed them we absolutely thrashed them it was such a good game it was actually a really crap game of cricket like we were 30 40 runs shy of what we should have got because mowlam set up a really good platform we just get a little easy week it's can happen um so we were like right girls we're 20 30 runs shy let's just go out and give it our role and we like bowled them out for like 90 odd yeah well actually me and soph are watching it me soph and lauren winfield put it on on the live stream and put it on the telly so it's pretty cute actually we had a little little mate's date but the the result at the end where york shorn the lost by 13 runs i thought didn't reflect the game because you dominated them so much and it just like lammie for god say lemmy let someone else play this

the game. How good. Honestly, like... For anyone that doesn't know, she got 50 odd, she took 4 for her, had a run out, and took a catch. So she was pretty much involved in six, over half of the wickets, and scored more than half of the runs. Yeah, and then we played two T20s as a warm-up game, she got 100 and a 50.

Like, honestly, she's so good at the minute. She is in some form, isn't she? Good on her. And come on, you might as well talk about it now because it's been all over the internet again. it hasn't because I haven't milked this one because do you know what it's just regulation for me these days crossing do you know what

I genuinely think the catch that we're talking about the specky catch that she talked hashtag speckies only that was a better catch than the one in the game that I was in the one that did go viral it was genuinely a very hard catch and it was so funny

because the camera angle you couldn't see if you caught it or not so me and so for both watching it and we're like oh oh oh oh oh she's caught it oh it was like really surprising that you'd got it do you know right so Beth Lancaster is trying to go over mid off because Lammy's bowling and I'm at midoff specialist mid off just getting that in there although I love the fact that I was like crossy I'm a specialist mid off you're like no you're going to be at fine like we've got harman pre-core in the

hundred brilliant no you said that brilliant um and I was just like the ball's gone up and over my head so I was like right if I just get my head down and chase it I'll stop the four and then I was like oh oh here we go and I just dived and it stuck and it was such a fluke and I stood up and I give it the big ones stuck my arms out to an empty stand someone was running around from mid on there and they gave you a bit of a hug which was which was probably saved that celebration but yeah so it was one of them they're awful catches aren't and you really dread them when you're in the ring you dread them going up and over your head and in my perspective Shafali Verma does a lot of that she does a lot of sky in the ball

and you're in the ring and you just think right get your head down and run and then it goes for six yeah but it was you know what it was a better catch than the one that went viral genuinely much better catch hashtag speckies only was pleased about then thunder cricket started trolley me about it on social media I was like why am I getting dragged into this

well I only can blame thunder cricket for your drop catch yesterday yeah well oh I came off the get off the match yesterday off the pitch and I looked on social media and someone was like, Kate Cross drops a catch, wonder what they're going to talk about on the podcast tomorrow. Brilliant.

I love the fact that me and you can't do anything without this being mentioned, without this podcast being mentioned. I put my kit on yesterday. You wore a blue suit and someone was like, best friends dressed the same or something. I was like, no, I literally get told what to wear. Like, I have to wear this uniform to play cricket.

What are you doing? It's not like we've gone, you wear that ODI kit and I wear that blue suit yeah so anyway I'll the kit for the T20s is like a red and a blue it looks a little bit purple so if you've got any suits that well that's good I've got I've got a fuchsia pink I'll wear it there you go nice right my sticky note you told me that on air in the test match you had a chat because you needed to fill some time about one of my life's theories yeah we did and we spoke about it for at least seven minutes and nobody really gets it so I I thought we could use the podcast as an amazing platform to explain what this theory is. And I'm a bit worried that you might have got it wrong. I didn't. No, I didn't. I made sure because I wanted to do you proud.

Okay, right. So, me and my old housemate, who I used to live with, she called Beck. We have this theory that it was actually her theory, but I've adapted it over the years, that people... You've stolen it. Yeah, I've stolen it. But it's great. And I've got a podcast so I can tell people without it. She can't.

but you can categorize people into two different categories you've got pigs and you've got rats and think of it as like a spectrum so you've got pigs at one end rats at the other end and you base this on how facially they look it's nothing bad neither one is better than the other it's just how you look I'm a rat and I'm happy with it we'll get on to you in a minute because you're a bit different so as you bring what about my face generally pigs are attracted to pigs pigs, rats are attracted to rats. Very, very rarely will you see a pig and a rat together?

We'll have to maybe put some pictures up of people when this podcast goes out. But let's do it in cricket. That might make it a little bit easier. Okay, so Stuart Broad is a rat. Yeah. And your shrubsall is a pig. Catherine Brunt is a pig.

Nat Siverr is a pig. I'm a rat. Sophie Eccleston's a rat. So you might get the gist. If you don't, it doesn't matter. Anyway, very rarely will you see a pig and a rat together and then

this is where we've adapted the theory so there is a form of person which is a hybrid a pig and a rat mix together and they're called a wriglet and you're a wriglet and riglets are generally found

attractive to everyone so you've got a real piggy nose but a real ratty mouth yeah I do and so I'm I'm compatible with pigs and rats yeah so you will find pigs or rats attractive

and pigs and rats will find you attractive. But if you're seeing, you would just find rats attractive. My history is very ratty. There's a lot of rats. So if you were with a pig, I would know that's not going to last. Potentially, yeah. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's not going to last. Amy Jones, another pig.

She's got a family of pigs. If you look at her family, there's a family of pigs there. So now, what I want people to do is when they're just out and about now, from now on, if you're in a coffee shop or whatever, just look at couples and you'll see what I mean you'll generally see that people together look similar which is ultimately what the theory means somebody emailed in though

and said right good theory Hartley but what about people like horses and I was like oh they're very much ratty though they're the rats yeah exactly they're the rats it can be done that I've seen it before I think I saw it on first dates where someone had the same theory but they had fish and dogs but I think that's quite loose I think pigs and rats

He's very, like you can see who is a clear pig and you can see who's a clear rat. Yeah, yeah, I agree. It's a good theory and let us know what you think because we're right. Yeah, we are right. And we want to get it out there now. So there's out there.

And on my sticking out, I had a really weird experience last week. So I had an email and I thought it was a spam email saying, you've got post at the pavilion from Old Trafford. And that was the email. And I was like, that's weird so I was like oh right okay so I popped in and said I've got some post it's Alex Hartley and the woman went oh yeah bit strange no balls to cricket podcast I was like yeah

wow I was like that's me anyway I got home and I was like what on earth is this what I ordered I thought it was a mug thought it was a hat like I hope it's a mug I bloody hope it is a mug with an A on it it's worse than a mug with an A on it hi Alex I heard on your podcast that You've got dry feet. Oh my God. Give the sandpaper back to the Aussies. Our creams will work much better. Best wishes Tom.

So Tom from a company has sent me five different types of heel, balming cream dry foot skin. And that was one of the moments that made me realize that people actually do listen to this podcast. It's not just me and you having a chat. And they've gone out of their way to send it through to all the traffic. So that's nice actually because if people are sending things for our issues

that we've got in life like my bank balance is so low and I'm just, it would be so nice if someone just maybe sent some cash to Old Trafford. Kate Cross at the No More Scrokey podcast. A brown envelope turning up. I do enjoy, I do enjoy the suspense stuff.

Is it, has it worked? I'm not dead, you see it. Oh God. Okay. Well, maybe that can be our little update next week. Give it a go this week and see what I think. I've got another thing on my sticky note, which is so random. You will not believe this.

Anyone that follows me on Instagram knows that me and Henry Two Fingers, have we explained who Henry Two Fingers is yet on the BBC? We haven't, no. So someone made us a drinking game, long story short. Henry is our media manager within the England team, and we just mentioned him all the time, didn't we? So it became Two Fingers if we mentioned Henry. in our drinking game so he then just became henry two fingers so if you hear henry two fingers

that's our media manager so me and henry two fingers went and visited a pier which is not far from here it's called cleaveton pier because we had an afternoon off and we just thought let's go do something and this peer ironically happened to be peer of the year for 2021 so we expected big things from it so we pay to get on we go and wander down it and as we're walking we see that there's like plaques with people's names on them and various different things like people got married birthdays happy birthday john like that kind of stuff and there is strange it is strange but a way of the peer to make money so actually quite clever um i actually found a katy cross on there so i was buzzing about that it wasn't mine i don't know who don't know who katy cross is but i claimed it i then

get a text from nat siver to say my name is on that pier i was like no way you're joking she was like Yeah, halfway down on the right. Because her godmother or godfather when she was young bought her the plaque. And so there's a Natalie Siver on Clevedon Pier and me and Henry were just there taking the Mick out of all of it. And that's actually got a plaque on it. That siverer is on the pier.

Yeah, genuinely. My favourite plaque that I found, though, was it said Shirley snogged Shane here 2012 and they put the date on it. And I put a plea out on Twitter, but I've not had any results yet. but I really want to find Shirley or Shane and see what the story was and find out. And are they still snogging? Are they still snogging?

What happened next? Why did they snog on the pier? Why are you going to Clevedon Pier to have a snog? Yeah, very odd. So Shirley or Shane from Cleveland Pier 2012, if you are out there, if you listen to the podcast, please get in touch with us because we want to get you on. Do we want?

We want the story, yeah. All right, Crossie wants you on. Yeah, I want the story. Shirley or Shane it was. Now, I know we said we weren't going to be very crickety today, but I have got something that I feel like we need to talk about, and it is going to be quite a serious subject. Okay.

So when we were at Headingley the other day, just when we beat Northern Diamonds. Yeah, nice. Get it done. The groundsman, I was just in the middle, and I was just talking to a couple of coaches, and the groundsman said, who's the captain? So I was like, oh, that's me.

I was like, is there anything I can help you with? now we were playing on a wicket and the men were playing after but on a different wicket so they were like four pitches down okay and the groundsman said to me oh is it all right if none of your field has fielded on that wicket are you joking so i laughed at him because i thought he was joking i went ha ha ha ha ha ha yeah good one shut up and he mumbled under his breath and he was like no seriously can nobody field on that wicket i went well if you want i'll get everyone to mark middle for you as well Well, and he genuinely, genuinely asked us not to field on the wicket. So I said, no, go and cover it. What on earth? How does he expect a game of cricket to happen and you just avoid that wicket? I was like, oh, you're going to tell Joe Rout not to field that extra cover because he's got a game the next day on that different pitch?

I was like, what is happening? What on earth? Jeez. Do you know what? We make so many amazing steps in the women's game and then things like that. you just realize how much further we've got to go, don't you? Like, that is appalling. That is so bad, isn't it?

Just put a bit of Hesian down. Why do you know the word Hesian? Because someone was like, just put the Hesion down. Wow, that could mean anything, and you're just copying them. Yeah. But then I was just like, I'm the sort of person, if you know me or you don't know me, that if you ask me to do something outrageous like that,

I'm more likely to put a fielder on that wicket. So I was like But it was exactly Cross it, it was exactly where cover and extra cover would be. I was just going to say you shouldn't have to plan your game of cricket based on where the groundsman doesn't want you to field. Yeah, he's like, I don't mind you running on it to pick up the ball but can you not have anyone standing on it?

Oh my God. What? Well, no, I'm not, that's just absolutely outrageous. I know, I know, and I knew it would annoy you. So I have got a lighter note. to finish my sticking out on. Okay. So my dad came up with it actually,

and it's catchphrase for Al and Crossy. Do you know when dad's come up with ideas and you're like, go on then, Dad. Tell it me, what do you want me to do on the podcast? What do you want me to say? Thinking I'll just ignore it. And quite often we talk about mental health on this podcast and how me and you have each other.

Yeah. And we always talk about each other. And my dad said, you should come up with something that reminds everybody that's listening. Remember, if you don't have anybody, you've got us. me and you yeah so because people will listen to this and think that they're our friends because we're

just talking to them yeah so for them to remember if they haven't got anybody they have me and you that's really sweet actually and on that note i had a really amazing message in my dms last night we get a lot of really bad dms don't we um yeah i got this amazing message from a girl who came and watched our game yesterday at bristol and she's not very well bless her she's um you know she's going through some things herself and she spoke about the podcast and how much it's helped her and how much she really appreciates me and you being role models in the women's game and it was just amazing so I'm going to send her a shirt because I thought no one should be going through anything like that so I'm going to get the girls to sign a shirt but yeah that's

very true actually we used to get that a lot didn't we in lockdown last year a lot of people were saying how they like they've missed either the dressing room banter or they've missed seeing their friends and actually the podcast reminded them of that and it was just like a like a like a so i think someone described it as a little hug once it was like getting a hug on a friday we used to send this out on a friday and they used to look forward to their little hug on a friday yeah so i thought it was actually really sweet and we should probably use it quite a lot so if you haven't got anybody you've got us yeah and actually our inbox is always open and you can email us on no balls podcast at bbc.co.com.combeck noblespodcast at bbc.combec.combe

It's so good they said it twice. While we're talking about our emails, shall we go upstairs? Yeah. Oh, first of all, let's congratulate Sue for being the first female to be an official at a men's match, by the way. Round of applause for Sue. Yes, Sue. And did you see the little smile on her face the whole game? I love that woman.

I was talking to her about it because she did our game yesterday. I was talking to her about it at Square Leg and she just said it was brilliant. She said some of the lads were a bit shy, didn't know how to kind of go about it. Other lads were brilliant. apparently Johnny Birstow went out of his way to have a real chat with her. But yeah, she said she loved it. So good on you, Sue. I still, I think we should then dedicate this one too, Sue.

And she's probably going to be listening. So let's go upstairs with Sue. Hi, Kate and Alex. I've got a few questions and I apologize if I use the wrong terminology. As batters, what do you talk about when you meet up in the middle of the wicket? Is it tactics or are you just having a chat? Well, it's a bit of both, isn't it? It's funny, isn't it?

Because, like, what do you talk about when you meet up in the middle? It's funny that you even do that. Yeah, like, after every over you, like, hi, was that all right? And do a little fifth bump? Yeah. But yeah, it is a bit of both. I think some people need the tactics, don't they? Some people need the cricket chart of like, right, this bowler does this, how are you going to score runs?

Where's your boundary option? Other people, like me, I'm just like, what are you doing for tea tonight? Have you got any plans this weekend? What are you up to? I always go out to the minute I'm like, long time, no, see. Well. She says, as a captain, would you always choose to bat first

or does it depend on the weather, opponent, location, etc? It actually depends on all of the above, doesn't it? You know, depends on if you're more comfortable as a team chasing or setting, if your opponents... So if you coming up against England men in a T20, you'd want them to bat first because England men love chasing. Yeah. Weather dependent, bit of swing, weather conditions.

We generally bat first in ODI cricket and we bowled first yesterday because there was weather around. We thought that then chasing would help with Duck with Lewis, that kind of thing. So yeah, it's quite tactical, isn't it? Yeah, and it's quite often you know what you prefer to do as a team, but sometimes you have to mix it up for other reasons. And she says finally, as best friends, would you rather be in the same team or on opposing teams? Oh, 100% the same team. yeah I couldn't have you genuinely couldn't play against you now I don't think

nah I'd get the giggles and also like I love it when you're bowling I'm at midoff and we just like just talk absolute shit yeah very true don't we like there's so many pictures of me and you going back to your run-up mark and I'm just passing you the ball and we're just laughing and smiling speaking of that yesterday Sophie Eccleston when I was bowling because I bowed quite a long spelled in our bod seven overs Eccleston was like right come on now I didn't take a wicket till my seventh over. She was like, right, come on now, Crossie. Do something.

I was really hoping that I took a wicket so that I could do the point and point to her. But you didn't? No, I didn't. But she took a catch for me. That was nice. That's good. The Crossy Do Something has stuck, though,

because everybody says it now. I get tweets being like, Alex Hartley, Crossie, time to do something. Nice. It's stuck. I like it. Greetings, Alan Kate. Ooh, different.

I started listening to the podcast last week. It's great, by the way. In one of the early episodes, Kate expressed her joy with the game theme hospital, which I was delighted with because it's an absolute classic. I thought I'd ask if she'd played Two Point Hospital, which is essentially the new version with shinier graphics, new diseases, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

That was the one. That was what I was playing. in lockdown last year that got me, I was up to like 3 a.m. playing it. And do you remember when I started uni, I had to delete the game because I was too nervous that I'd spent too much time on the game and not on my dissertation? Yeah, and you spent money on it and had to ring your dad asking for a tenor for a pint of milk. No, that was a different game. That was a different game a couple of years ago. That was bad time. Anyway, vaguely, I have a cricket question just to keep it kind of relevant. If you had to have a walk-on song when you came out to bat, what would it be

and why? BELTA by Jerry Cinnamon. She is a belter. You are different from the rest. I am different from the rest, yeah. What would yours be? I've been asked this question so many times and I've never thought of an answer. It's hard, isn't it? Because you've got favorite songs at the moment, but you want to try and have a song that is related to, like, you or your name. name like Heather Knight goes out to the rhythm of the night which i think is brilliant yeah i mean you could i could go out to a remix of you can call me al yeah that's a good one i think i'll do that but it needs to be remixed we've got jack's jones for the hundred so i might get him to give it a bit of a spin becky hill might sing it for you as well i wish her well i really enjoyed

heather night's comment on i didn't go down that well did it i deserved more bless her it did this doesn't say hi what changed in your routine outside of training to get you both to the next level. For example, was it gym, change of mentality or a specific experience? Thanks, Kath. For me, it was probably a mixture of a few experiences, really. I kept getting knocked down and knocked down,

dropped from academies, got told I wasn't good enough, and I just really wanted to prove people wrong. I loved cricket and wanted to be the best, so I left Langston and I and went and joined Middlesex to play Division I cricket, and I just thought I'm going to give this my all

and then I can never die wandering basically yeah I think I was similar I think recently it's been more the fitness side of it I think I've found it so much easier now that I'm fitter but to get to the next level it was probably someone taking a bit of a punt on me I've always spoke about John Stanworth in the Lanks Academy and that was quite a brave move from him

but I think if that hadn't have happened I genuinely don't think I'd have taken my cricket as seriously as I did then because I knew that there was an opportunity to get to the next level but yeah it's a bit of everything isn't it kind of all goes into one and there's probably a phase in everyone's life

where they realise they've got the chance to go to the next level and it's just how you react to that I think and how seriously you take it one thing I always always thanked my parents for though they never pushed me into anything or never made me make any decisions

something that really stuck with me as a kid was I came home home from school one day and said, I don't want to go cricket training. My mum was like, well, do you think I want to take you cricket training? She said, well, if you don't want to go, I'm not going to take you. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, yeah, like she's taking me because I want to be there. Yeah. We see it a lot now actually, don't we? With, especially with a lot of the younger Lank's girls coming through, you can really see whose parents are like more desperate for them to be there than the kid actually is. And you kind of just want them to like just lay off a little bit

and just let them find their own way, because cricket's such a strange sport in that regard that it is Marmite, you either love it or you hate it and you're either really passionate about cricket or you kind of don't understand it whatsoever. And it's also a game where you fail more times than you succeed. Yeah. It's such a weird sport, but you can.

You can tell parents that are pushing their kids and eventually they're just going to push their kids away. Yeah. And there's also too much cricket that you can do because it is such a, like the long format of the game. Yesterday for us felt like a short game. and we still played for seven hours you know we still stopped for food

halfway through it's that longed so like it's such a it takes up so much of your time and there's so many aspects of your game that you need to train that you don't need to kind of push that other element of like the mental side of it either just let kids find their own way

I've got one here and it says from Anonymous Oh Hi both as always I love the podcast Alex I loved and was impressed with the American accent what a throwback throwback

I can't even think how to do my American accent now oh my God oh my God when playing both county and international cricket do you have to make your own way to the ground

what's your favorite service station what's your favorite servo when you're stopping at grounds which servo do you like to go to and why I love Cobham services great great services for choices of food but we've stopped at I reckon

Do you know what? This would be an interest... It wouldn't be interesting whatsoever, actually. How many of the service stations do you reckon we've stopped at in this country? All of them. All of them. Yeah. I wonder if there's one we've not stopped at yet.

I did go to a new one the other day. Yeah. And it brought me great pleasure. It's interesting and it's quite a sad life that we lead when we're getting excited about service stations. Do you remember when we couldn't drive and like my mum would take us to cricket games and we used to play guess what's at the service station? Yeah. So you'd have to guess the type of petrol,

guess if there was a McDonald's, a KFC, a subway, or guess if there was an M&S or a WH Smiths? Or guess what coffee it was? Yeah, again, real sad. This is what cricket is. So sad. And then one time we were driving home, and it's like a four-hour drive,

but the servo didn't have the sign on it. So my mum drove into the service station to see who had won the gaming back out. No. Bad times. I tell you what another one of my favourite ones is, is Nutsford, because I know I'm near home when I get to Nutsford

I'm literally 10 minutes from my house Yeah I'm off at that junction so I know Gloucestershire services I've been past it 15 times in the last seven days Good services because it's that farm shop one It's all really healthy

Oh I'd never stop there Oh so there's one There you go In terms of driving ourselves It depends, isn't it? In COVID times at the minute We are getting coaches Two games

But we drive ourselves to training But you're driving yourself everywhere aren't you as Thunder? We are, but if we've got a big away day, like let's just say we're going to Loughborough or down south somewhere, we will most likely get coach. Right.

Hi, Kate and Alex. Firstly, congratulations on a thrilling test match. I even made it to day four to attend my second ever cricket match and it was great, even if the result didn't go England's way. When a throws come in near the stumps, do you like to grab it and knock it off with your hands

or hope for a direct hit and risk overthrows? I can never work out how anyone, can judge it effectively all the best daniel now you're the worst person to ask this question too because i've never ever ever ever seen you gather a ball at the stumps without dropping it or without just palming it to the next person yeah um i'm i'm a professional cricketer and it hurts when someone throws the ball at the stumps it hurts i just leave it yeah you always leave it and then you get eggy if it goes for like overthrows but you never make an attempt to stop it. I've started being braver and I've started to try and like gather it and flick it on.

Right. So Daniel, thanks for the email. This is genuinely something that we practice a lot in training. It is a skill to be able to know what to do and you see there's loads of different techniques to it. Owen Morgan gets side onto the stumps. Sarah Taylor used to get in front of the stumps. I've seen a few wicket keepers behind the stumps. But you just practice and practice and you kind of get an idea of then what is going to hit. Did you see Sam Billing? his direct hit which Chris Wokes left. Billings has launched one in from the boundary stopping a two and Chris Wokes is at the stumps and he leaves it right at the last second

and it's a direct hit which I genuinely think was a, I know we love Chris Wokes and we're going to sing his praises but it was a genuine skill from him to be able to know where his stumps were to know to leave that ball. Yeah, yeah, it is a tough one isn't it like I just always think if I'm in line with the stumps

the ball must hit and it very very rarely hits. Yeah, very rarely. Hello Alex and Kate. hard luck on losing the first match of the Rachel Hayhill Flint Trophy. It was a great comeback in the second game, especially with Kate scoring 40 odd. Very impressive. Thank you.

They're impressive for batting. Crossy come back, you know. I think England have the best 11. One of our coaches said this to me the other day. They were like, what number do you bat for your regional team? So I said, oh, about six or seven. It's like, seven normally. He's like, buddy, how we bat deep, don't we?

He's like, you're coming in at 11? Yeah. Yeah, I am. And I'll scoop the first ball. Every time. Anyway, my question is, do you both collect cricket memorabilia? Sorry? Do you both collect cricket memorabilia?

Hold on. Like sign jerseys, bats or other things. What are your most special ones other than Alex's World Cup final jersey, of course? Blot it off if you play in bingo. What is the weirdest item of memorabilia you have seen someone keep? Good luck for the 100. I am rooting for your success. Um, you, you have some cricket memorabilia in your bedroom because it's something I hate.

Oh, it's not memorabilia, is it? It's a cricket bat photo frame. Oh, this isn't fair Al, that my sister got me that as a present and you were like, that is ugly. And I was like, well, it's the worst thing. And Jen listens to this podcast, so she knows now that you're going to hate it. I do, Jen, what were you thinking? Oh, bless, don't be mean. You're so horrible sometimes you. Going back to the question, I don't really collect memorabilia. I'll keep things that are mine.

So obviously like trophies and shirts and stuff if I've made, I've kept all my debut shirts and I've kept, if I've taken a fibre, I've had that shirt signed. But I've not really, I've got one stump, like, from my ashes, but that's it, really. Alex Blackwell's off stump. Yeah, it actually wasn't Alex Blackwell. And I keep telling everyone it was, but it was just Cameron, but either way. Oh, Alex Blackwell sounds better. Yeah.

Nothing against Jess Cameron, obviously. Jess Duffing now. I don't think I know of anything that's... In fact, I tell a lie. Oh, my gosh, this is weird. Okay, so I went over and played cricket in Perth for two seasons. And a guy on Twitter got in touch for me called Perth Hammers. So he was a West Ham fan.

And basically loved my dad, loved the fact that Dad played. And he was like, is your dad coming over at all, you know, coming over to Australia to watch your play. So I was like, yeah, he's actually coming over for Christmas this year. Like, maybe you can meet him. This guy put on, like, an evening with my dad in a pub in Perth. And all the West Ham fans from Perth came to meet my dad. And then he invited him to his house to see the cave.

It was described as the cave. This room was wall to wall, floor to ceiling, West Ham memorabilia. It had a West Ham memorabilia duvet. He had seats from when, from the, um, the old bowling ground, like he had shirts, and he made my dad sit in the room and have a photo, and I was like, Dad, you are never coming out of there. It was the weirdest thing.

Like, is his wife allowed in there? No, no one's allowed in there. Literally it him, and anyone that played for West Ham is allowed in that room. Weird. Oh my God, so weird. Bit of an LBW. I was going to say, speaking of LBWs, should we go on to the little bit weird section?

Yes, let's. I've got one here. it says, I have got a fear of stickers. No, I'm on the same one. Yes, it's a real thing. It's called pittachia, oh God, I'm glad I'm reading this. It's called pittokionphobia. You've got a fear of stickers.

Whenever I'm in a situation where someone may put a sticker on me, I have to fib and say I'm allergic to the adhesive. It's mostly because of the fear, but it's also a little bit related to trying to hide the embarrassment. I don't know if it's related to my stickophobia, but when I'm peeling the lid off a yoghapot, if the whole lid doesn't come off, I can't eat the yoghurt. Something freaks me out about it.

I mean, stickers don't necessarily go on the skin. Well, whenever I'm in a situation where someone may put a sticker on me, how often in life are you in that situation? It's not, it's not like, I don't know how to... When you go to the dentist at the age of 14. Yeah. Um, yeah, weird, very weird.

I like a stick. I used to do the Euro sticker books and stuff like that. Tops are bringing out 100 stickers, aren't they? Yeah. They got into touch with me the other day. We need to talk about that, actually, because our ratings aren't right. Yeah, they are. They are.

You're batting is higher than mine, not okay. They are bang on. They got in touch with me, and they're going to send me a giant sticker of me. No. How cool, yeah. You can stick it all with your cricket bat. So I don't know if you remember, well, we had somebody say that they wear dirty underwear to run in the next day. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

So if you put a fresh wear on and run, you'll have to get changed and then they'll be all sweaty. Yeah. A solution for this LBW is to wear two in one shorts with a full inner layer, therefore requiring no underwear. Hmm. I don't think that's a solution. I still think you would then just have to wash your shorts Yeah you definitely would Also they never seemed that snug Those wiry bits in men's shorts

And also like something's definitely popping out the side Yeah it is isn't it You don't want to be running down the street And be like mad dick fell out Right I've got one here it might be an LBW but also I am a little bit OCD I normally buy socks with small figure slash symbols on the side it might be a figure of a plane or a symbol of something similar

seeing as the symbol is on one side of the sock while the other side is just black I always must have the symbol on the side facing away from my body so on the left foot I have the symbol on the left side on the right foot I've got the symbol on the right side The other day I must have been a bit tired while putting my socks on

and after a couple of hours I discovered that the symbol on my right foot was on the left side so I immediately had to change my socks to get it right. Cheers from Norway, Erling. Yeah, I am with him. I am so with it.

Yeah, if I have a pair of socks, she says in not match socks. I was going to say, you never match your socks. But if I've got a certain brand of socks, I do, I have the branding on the outside. well yeah i think that's that is normal because if you've got a sporty pair of socks let's say you're going to have them on the out with a tick yeah you're going to have them on

the outside yeah that makes sense but i'm not buying symboled socks no i mean i buy a certain brand of sock which have a symbol on and then i wear it on the outside yeah that makes sense because then people can see the symbol but i'm not getting like a a maverick pair of like wallace and grommet socks and having to have them on the outside in fact i'm putting them straight in the bin. Yeah, buy them. Get in the bin. Get in the bin. Hi Alex and Kate. Love the podcast. I always listen to it at work. It never fails to make me laugh. I've found the last month hard, but I realise that there are a lot of people who've had it a lot worse than me. And one of the things I'm looking forward to is watching live cricket in stadiums. I've got a couple of LBWs. When I

used to have cereal, usually some kind of frosted flake, I wouldn't put milk on it. My housemates at uni thought that this was incredibly weird and they still think so 15 years later. One of my housemate had his own. He liked to put ketchup on a roast dinner. I think mine's probably worse though. So hang on Paul would

just have dry flakes. I knew someone once who used to have water on cereal. Nah. That's not okay, yeah that's awful. I'd rather have dry cereal than watery cereal. Yeah. Would you rather have dry cereal

or ketchup on a roast dinner ketchup on a roast dinner but even that I think that's weird but you do that don't you? Yeah I do I'm more for that one You put mayonnaise on it as well don't you Yeah no no no

Not on my roast dinner I put mayonnaise with lasagna And I put mayonnaise with my Chinese Oh yeah Oh that makes it alright Less weird Yeah that's fine Last night I got a Chinese

And I got salt and pepper chicken Krisby beef chips And a big dollop of mayonnaise Oh weird weird Hi girls Really love the podcast I live with my housemate and I tend to use her personal mug and she finds it weird

I don't think it's weird what do you think thanks Alex I was listening going God that sounds familiar you're an I know go and clean that mug for me

I am going to clean it I'm going to make another brew I'm going to go for a run and I'm going to put that mug next to my pillowcase guys we hope you've enjoyed the episode please please get in touch we need some emails you can email us on no balls podcast at bbc.c.c.combeau.com.

No balls podcast at bbccdoch.combe. And we'll see you next week for more fun and we've got a little guest for you lined up so a surprise. And remember if you don't have anybody you've got us. You've got us. Bye. Bye. the first over. It's what England we're looking for. Hartley balls. Down the track

comes scoring this time she connects. It's either six or out. It's six.