Everything that happened in Melbourne last week

It's quite impressive, in a way, to not only forget to post the email on Wednesday this week, but also forget to post it at all last week. That makes 16 days since the last time we sent one out. Whoops. We can blame a combination of things: babies and their upended sleep cycles, Meredith Music Festival and its upended sleep cycles, straight into the Melbourne live show on the Monday night, recording a show on Tuesday, then travelling to Perth on the Wednesday itself. 

There was a fair bit going on.

Up top is the preview we recorded on that Wednesday, ahead of the Perth Test. Entirely useless now, but it can act as a timestamp so this retrospective email makes sense.

The live show was incredible. Got the nerves going as we looked around the curtain at the Corner and saw the place filled to the back and buzzing. League Tees brought their shirts, Fisher Classics had their beautiful prints, and we had our people. The first half involved some new performance pieces, Story Time, an impromptu piece of community theatre, and Geoff nearly smashing the lighting rig with a chair. Accidentally. Then Glenn Maxwell took the stage and blew everyone away with his honesty and good humour, not missing a beat. We got to catch up with a lot of people afterwards, on what was honestly a perfect night.

Cam Fink was there taking video, so there may be some parts available down the track. Thanks to Tom Downey for organising the night. If you haven't got Sydney tickets yet, come on down.

Sydney tickets here for January 7. 

The Adelaide show with Geoff and Bharat will be an informal Story Time recording so it's free entry, January 19 at the Arkaba.

Justin Langer ceremonially blesses the Test in the West

Season 15, Episode 15: The Perth Test is coming, and once again the local authorities are apparently worried about whether people will show up unless JL waves the sceptre. One person on the way out is WACA boss Christina Matthews, soon to end her long tenure. Shan Masood makes a double ton as Pakistan's new skipper while Matthew Renshaw tons up in the PM's XI runfest. Rain wrecks the Big Bash, Amazon hoovers up yet more property with a broadcast rights deal, Lou Vincent gets a reprieve, and there is damp cricket from all over the world.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:
7.20 - Jessica Currie

We also manged to put this one out on video.

Here's the audio.

Story Time 162 – The Norcross-Sundaresan takeover

This week, with Geoff and Adam away from the desk it's Daniel Norcross and Bharat Sundaresan in charge - the first ep in Story Time history with not one but two summer newsreaders. What did they get up to? We're looking forward to finding out for ourselves.

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
8.38 - Yvann Stephens
5.03 - Matthew Price
6.55 - Hayden
2.57 - Robert Cocking & Dave McRobbie

Here's the episode.

The Final Word with Maxi's Parents, Joy and Neil 

Season 15, Episode 14: In the lead-up to the live show, we decided to do something else. A short ep, but a very sweet one too. A conversation with Neil and Joy  Maxwell, his parents. Recorded in the family home where  Glenn grew up in South Belgrave, this will give you a sense of how it  is riding the wave of his career from their unique perspective, and the  thrill of what it’s like for them when everything clicks – as it did so  spectacularly against Afghanistan during the World Cup. Lovely people.

Here's the interview.

Andy Flower on Zimbabwe's finest hour – Greatest Season, ‘99 World Cup

It  never got better for Zimbabwe than their run at the 1999 World Cup,  storming into the Super Six stage after thrilling wins over South Africa  and India. Their star wicketkeeper-bat from that memorable campaign,  Andy Flower, joined us for an extensive and tender conversation about  the tournament, his homeland, and his career's abrupt end at the next  World Cup. With Dan Brettig (The Age) and Shannon Gill (Code Sports).

Here's Andy. 

That was last week's series of episodes. Now for this week!