Best cricket photo we've seen?

It has to be close. We don't know the photographer's name, but this snap from 80s Brisbane grade cricket features an off-camera intervention from Story Time fave Harald Frei. If you can figure out who took it, let us know. 

In other news, it is spring in Melbourne, various grand finals are about to take place, but most importantly of all, cricket has begun. Men's and women's domestic competitions have played their first matches, which means only one thing. A new season.

This is The Final Word, Season 15.

Josh Hazlewood learns to bat

Season 15, Episode 1: Spring is springing in Melbourne, domestic cricket has begun, and you know what that means. A new season of The Final Word. Just in time for a fresh World Cup. Australia's warm-ups continue to derail in India, Shubman Gill is set to break records, David Warner is now a right-hander, Dasun Shanaka is sacked as Sri Lanka captain, India's women win a medal at storied Pingfeng, and HCL Technologies are back on the inscrutable case. Plenty happening around the world as September winds to a close.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:
3.80 - Matthew Nutley

Here's the episode. 

Story Time 151 – Hopper Read, not Chopper Read

This week, in a bumper revisit special, have we found the cricketer whose career was most unfairly influenced by accountants? Bring your MBAs. The birth of a legendary franchise, before franchises existed. The greatest prison escape stories from regional Victoria. And have we also found the best cricket photograph of all time? You decide, on Story Time.

Your Nerd Pledge revisits this week:
7.60 - Richard Jansz-Moore
2.90 - Richard Jansz-Moore
210.15 - Rob O'Neill
3.67 - Stephen Baxter
4.20 - Ramaswamy
4.31 - Michael Fallon
2.25 - Jonathan Brand
3.62 - Tim Unwin
2.01 - Richard Jones
11.40 - Chris Dobbins
2.07 - Greg Upon Thames

The audio is here.

Thomas Daniels, or Joel Edgerton?

Calling The Shots, Director's Cut

We have two more episodes with newly recorded behind-the-scenes commentary from Adam and Daniel Norcross to set them up.

Episode 2 - Test Match Special: We began between the World Wars, where radio and cricket started their beautiful relationship. The next logical step was to chart the game's most enduring broadcast, Test Match Special. To tell a tale more complicated than one might assume are three guests who have spanned decades with the programme: commentator Jonathan Agnew, summariser Vic Marks and producer Peter Baxter.

Episode 3 - On TV: In the third installment of our documentary series made during the covid lockdowns of 2020 we shift from radio to television. With guests Harsha Bhogle, Jim Maxwell, Mark Nicholas and Dan Waddell, the episode explores how TV broadcasts evolved from humble beginnings into the machines they are today. Along the way, the relationship between the game and vision enjoys an evolution, with the sport challenged and influenced in unexpected ways by what is transmitted into living rooms around the world.

That's it for Week 4 of September. Next week, the World Cup will be about to begin.

Incredible to have made it through to another season. Thanks for making it possible.