The Final Word with... well, everyone

What a week! The full video of the Stephen Fry interview is now live and lots of people have enjoyed watching that one in addition to listening to it. Adam headed down to Lord's to interview Grace Harris, and there will be video of that one next week with the audio already live. And recorded to be released in the week to come, we've got a long-pursued interview with Cheteshwar Pujara, one of the top rank of Final Word Faves. 

That was Week 3 of August!

Also on Patreon subscribers we're fairly confident we've done Jimmy Anderson once and for all, as we're past Shane Warne's 708 and that's a fair way off for him, Now it might be Murali's 800 the next target? Onwards! 

September is looking like the month to catch our breath collectively, so there will be some other bits and pieces from the vaults: the archive episodes are down to the last ten, or really the first ten, that very few people will have heard. Adam is working on an updated release of his Calling The Shots documentary. There are other irons in the fire. We're also hoping to make more of the shows available on video for those who prefer it that way. All of this is possible because of the subscriber numbers, so thanks again.

Lastly, the ad-free feed - this has become our white whale over the last couple of months, because of the complications with running two feeds out of one server, versus the double-handling and data problems of running two servers. Boring, but we are still working on it.

Shock us! Ben Stokes’ pretend ODI retirement is over

Season 14, Episode 33: The most predicable coming-out-of-retirement tale is complete, with Ben Stokes doing as we all knew he would – he’s going to India for the World Cup in October to help England defend their World Cup. A lot more, from our night at The Hundred for Adam’s birthday to Wahab Riaz’s own retirement from international cricket… which he hasn’t played for over three years. Throw in India getting rolled by the Windies, Steve Finn’s retirement and an existential crisis for South African Test cricket and it’s another busy week at Final Word HQ, which for the moment is Daniel Norcross’ sitting room in South London.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week is:
10.60 - Sam Davies

Here's the episode.

The Final Word with Grace Harris

Season 14, Episode 32: One  of our favourites from the earliest days of the pod, and one of the  most likeable people in the game - Grace Harris. A international career  that started in a hurry before stopping just as quickly, the  hard-hitting Queenslander is now back in business at the top level.  She’s also making the very most of her opportunities on the short-form  circuit, winning fans aplenty in India during the WPL and currently  calling Lord’s her home as an overseas import for the London Spirit.  Most importantly, a great egg.

Audio is here.

Story Time 145 – Roman Holiday

Buongiorno from the Eternal City, where history never sleeps and neither does this history program. No Italian cricket on the show but for some reason a lot of Greg Chappell. He could have been one of those bearded Roman soldiers, right? Also, the White Lightning finishes off a classic one-dayer, we squeeze Jack Hobbs' numbers into a certain shape, and do you know which woman played both for and against India? 

Your Nerd Pledge numbers this week:
2.07 - Tom Ford & Greg Upon Thames
2.60 - Ian Wolstenhome & Andrew Gardner
2.35 - Tom Lodewycke
6.28 - Rhubarb

And the episode.

Archive ep: Steve O'Keefe hits the dancefloor at Revolver

Season 2, Ep 6: Reloading lost episodes from the early Final Word, we're going all the way back to January 2016, where we spent a wet Sydney Test match thinking of songs involving rain rather than watching cricket.

West Indies refuse to cook up a run chase, concentrating instead on making 300 in an innings, while James Pattinson gets clobbered by Carlos Braithwaite - remember the name. Nathan Lyon has to go to India, and of historic importance is the moment Steve O'Keefe gets out the glowsticks. Not to mention another major achievement: the week when Geoff wins Dan of the Day in Melbourne pub cricket.

Relive the magic here.

That's it! Plenty more to come next week, and we'll catch up with the Patreon inbox if you're waiting for a reply or a Discord access key. See you all soon.