THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: French cricket levels up, and Liam Dawsons resigns from trying to play test cricket "The Ghost Cricket Leagues of France - a superb title for anything, really." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'50): The Unstoppable Sonny Ramadhin is stopped "His 588 deliveries over 98 overs remain the most balls bowled in a first-class innings." THE REVIEW (21'20): Cricket's Greatest Game (2022) "We need more people who find Trevor Bayliss sexy." Recorded 1 April 2024

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy reports back from the Logan Cup, and Toby enjoys the small (and futile) parts of Sunday cricket "Clearly the Reverse Swept Radio coffers will be extensive enough to fly me back to Australia every three weeks to record the podcast?" FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'00): the Tied Test between Australia and India, 1960 "Richie Benaud walked onto the outfield as Australia begins their chase, and sees clover flowers all over the outfield." THE REVIEW (24'30): The Miracle...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Reflecting on the West Indian victory against Australia "So I woke up last Sunday morning in a Gothic temple, as you do." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'50): Benjamin West's The Cricketers, and the battle to take the painting to the US "One bat is being leant on like a walking stick, the other has been discarded on the floor." THE REVIEW (21'55): Shane Warne: A Hampshire Love Story (BBC Radio Solent, hosted by Robbie James) (2023) "If you're doing a radio show about Warne,...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy ponders the lot of the groundstaff of waterlogged British pitches; Toby reports back from day 1 of the SCG test "You presumably need a super super blotter, when it comes to a flood." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'50): When Cricket Added a Fourth Stump: the innovations of Cricket Max "This is a niche question: where do you take guard when you've got four stumps?" THE REVIEW (22'40): Evita Burned Down our Pavilion: A Cricketing Odyssey through Latin America by James Coyne...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy becomes a Middlesex member, and Toby finds himself hopelessly out of his depth "We have a running joke that our shirts are our best player. This has come back to bite us in the arse: bonus points for wearing the same shirt got us promoted up a division." FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'10): The One Ball Walkout: Transvaal vs the Rest of South Africa, 3 April 1971 "We create so many assorted reasons for play to stop, that you do become slightly immune as a...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy reflects on a rare summer without cricket, and Toby enjoys Mark Ramprakash's insights into England's woeful World Cup "To lose me and Sir Alastair in just a few weeks would be a lot for the nation to take." FROM THE ARCHIVES (13'48): The Greatest Australian Cricketer you've never heard of: Greg Mail "Perhaps the secret to his success is not being quite good enough." THE REVIEW (26'18): First of the Summer Wine by Harry Pearson (2022) "A breeder of canaries and...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy makes a first visit to Nevil Road and Toby reflects on post-captaincy careers "In my head, Misbah-ul-Haq had to go for it. In reality, he could have done it in singles." FROM THE ARCHIVES (12'10): When Warne and Dravid met by the Solent "He is eventually undone by legspin - but not by Warne." THE REVIEW (22'10): The Englishman Abroad - BBC radio play by Christopher Douglas "Much like that Australian top order, I might have had enough of Bodyline by this...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy plays cricket in a field in Kent, and Toby enjoys Afghanistan v Pakistan  "The other great advantage: compared to a proper game, the wait for a post-match pint is much shorter." FROM THE ARCHIVES (07'50): A potted history of cricket in Japan "And then the penny dropped, and I realised that all along he had been talking about croquet, while I had been talking about cricket." THE REVIEW (17'15): Edging Towards Darkness: The Story of the Last Timeless Test by John...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: For the third episode in a row, Andy visits Lord's, and Abdullah Shafique pulls off an impossible catch "Maybe short legs around the world are cursing Shafique for resetting expectations for what short legs can be." FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'20): Ted Alletson's 189 in 1911 "Play restarted at 2:15 and Alletson was out at 2:55. In those forty minutes, he scored 142 runs." THE REVIEW (21'40): Stumped (2022) by Shomit Dutta "We've all played in games of cricket that don't...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy visits Lord's again, and a vintage cricket story on Twitter "This is the most awful team I have ever had, the batting is awful and the bowling, my god. I have not got a bowler. . . . If anyone would like to take on my job they can have it. . .  I hope it rains for the rest of the season." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'00): Fowler's Match: Eton vs Harrow, 1910 "In the whole history of cricket, there has been nothing more sensational" - The Times THE REVIEW (19'15):...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Visiting the Lord's pavilion and Leicestershire win a remarkable game "You can't really have everyone wandering around with pints." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'20): Ian Botham v Andy Roberts in 1974: teenage Botham loses his teeth but wins the match "I spat out the last fragments of teeth, took a few sips of water, and let the 12th man assess the damage." THE REVIEW (19'20): Caught Out: Crime, Corruption, Cricket (Netflix documentary) “Sport is meant to be unscripted. It’s...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Discovering ICC TV, and rediscovering The Nightwatchman "Watching Zimbabwe is pure nostalgia for me: in Harare I made a very elegant four." FROM THE ARCHIVES (09'10): The Curious Case of the end of Bobby Peel's Career "Pissed at the wicket? Most probably. Did he piss on the wicket? Probably not." THE REVIEW (19'50): Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution, by Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde (2019) "There's a theme which could almost be used by businesses as an...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Duncan Hamilton fears for the future of cricket writing, and Australia's test players learn from their predecessors via the media "Ian Healey sets himself up in front of the pedal bin in the SEN Office, and did a piece for camera that looks suspiciously like it was filmed on a phone." FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'50): The Rise, Fall and Rise of Chris Schofield "This is the feature that Andy has just admitted he has been looking forward to for several years..." THE REVIEW...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Ricky Ponting has a plan to save Test cricket, and the MCC take a mis-step when issuing their clarification on the Mankad. "It goes back to that thing called 'the Spirit of Cricket', and the MCC don't contribute towards a debate pro-actively about the Spirit of Cricket when they use language like this" FROM THE ARCHIVES (12'00): Pakistan vs Bangladesh in Multan, 2003 "They decide not to call the batsman back - which is odd, given that it's the captain who has dropped...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Listening to the Aus SA series from an English winter, and re-learning cricket's self-control "When you're watching cricket, you can swear at the umpire as much as you like. But when you're on the pitch, you have to switch to see the umpire in a very different way." FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'00): "An innings played with one eye and one leg" - The Nawab of Pataudi's 75  "As well as having double vision from childhood, he's nursing an injury from the first test - he comes...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy welcomes a legspinner into the world, the test debut of Tagenarine Chanderpaul, and a promising tour match from the South Africans "As yet, she hasn't displayed the level of patience and self-control required of an opening bat." FROM THE ARCHIVES (11'10): DRS' test debut "Every referral that had been sent to the third umpire in the Friends Provident Trophy had ended up back with the on-field umpire's decision." THE REVIEW (21'40): Long Shot Summer - The Year of...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: farewell to Bob Cattell, author of the Glory Gardens series; and Jonathans Agnew and Liew talk about that incident "This week of all weeks, we don't want to talk too much about politics, but..." FROM THE ARCHIVES (09'00): Godfrey Harold Hardy - the mathematician who loved cricket "That was only the start of his new year resolutions, that also included 'Be the first man atop Everest' and 'Assassinate Mussolini'." THE REVIEW (18'00): One Billion to One: The Great...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: cricket in the rain at the Oval, and Shomit Dutta's new play Stumped "It's a very liberating thing to take a day off work to go to the curry house and the pub, and you wouldn't do that under other circumstances." FROM THE ARCHIVES (08'40): Simpson 'Sammy' Guillen - the man who played test cricket for the West Indies and New Zealand "Ironically it was Guillen who was responsible for New Zealand's first-ever test victory - in a game against his old team." THE...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: meeting 'Yorkie' and Australia's new friendship with Pacific cricket "Once you've messed up your own innings, you can take on the umpiring and muck up someone else’s." FROM THE ARCHIVES (10'45): When the President went to the Cricket: Eisenhower at Pakistan vs Australia in Karachi "We hope Biden can meet Eisenhower's standards and make it through a whole day... without yawning." THE REVIEW (20'55): Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams (2022) "Anyone who has spent...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: the joy of cricket writing (writing cricket writing, not reading cricket writing); watching Glamorgan's record-breaking innings "Most undeservedly, I ended up interviewing the curator of the London Transport Museum." FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'40): When a stump became a weapon: Rashid Patel loses it "The batsman has his bat horizontally across his chest in an unusual fencing move." THE REVIEW (20'10): The Unforgiven: Missionaries or Mercenaries by Ashley Gray...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: an update from Lord's and England annihilate the Netherlands "As someone who has today had champagne sprayed over my back, my feelings are now rather more nuanced. The behaviour at Lord's may not be better, but the product dumped on you is certainly of a higher calibre." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'40): When a captain sent his fastest bowler from the field "Something exploded inside me. I couldn't go on. All I wanted to do was get off the pitch." THE REVIEW (15'20): The...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: watching baseball, and Bangladesh host Sri Lanka "The first pitch of the game was sent straight into the stands for a home run. That raised my and my wife's sense of what normal drama would be in baseball. It turned out to be very rare." FROM THE ARCHIVES (12'00): Andrew Symonds at the 2003 World Cup "There must be a psychological credit to Symonds: you come in knowing that if you don't score there's the next player waiting, and scoring under those circumstances...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: all change at the top for English cricket "Many of us fans are attracted to the idea of the specialist captain." FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'30): The Sir Walter Lawrence Trophy "For Sir Walter, his money was well spent: his legacy has been preserved by this trophy, while it's hard to find out much else about him other than the description of 'master builder'." THE REVIEW (19'15): Howzat for Hollywood (BBC Sounds) "If you were a British actor in Hollywood at the time,...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: how best to remember Shane Warne, and a cricket-inspired name for a new member of the Reverse Swept Radio family "In 40 years time they'll say that he was named after three West Indian greats, and then defined the name Chadd as the finest English opener the 21st century has seen." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'30): The most expensive over ever bowled in first-class cricket  "After all, the whole thing was a complete waste of time: they could have played out the draw and...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Marnus Labuschagne prepares for the subcontinent, and Toby takes a rare catch as keeper "I remember a player reverse sweeping in a village game, and the keeper was so offended by the reverse sweep that he gave the batsman an uncharacteristic send off." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'50): The most consecutive test maidens ever  "Many of the team were suffering from what The Times rather wonderfully described as 'internal misfortunes'." THE REVIEW (17'15): Shane: The...