THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: The county fixture list is published, and falling back in love with cricket thanks to the women's Ashes "In the next episode of Reverse Swept Radio, we'll be providing advice on the best way to cook a cricket ball." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'30): When Alastair Cook and James Anderson played darts  "Maybe this moment at Ally Pally can be credited with rescuing the career of one of England's greatest ever batsman." THE REVIEW (18'45): Who Only Cricket Know by David...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy reviews his highlights of 2021, and enjoying Iceland on Twitter. "The memory of sitting in the sun, at the top of the Radcliffe Road stand, stuffing my face with Scotch Eggs, will be one to keep me going through the winter months." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'45): Chris Martin, the King of Tailenders "Seeing a tailender desperately backing away to leg is perhaps the only thing that we can all relate to in test cricket. So thank you Chris Martin and Alan Mullally...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Listening to TalkSport's coverage of India vs New Zealand from a covid sickbed, and Tom Latham's remarkable innings. "You often think that you have to reinvent yourself to do well in the subcontinent. Latham's great skill was to do less." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'30): Betty Wilson: the first test cricketer to score a century and take ten wickets in the same game "Her father was a cobbler, so it was only natural that he should make her a pair of cricket...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Tim Murtagh returns for another year, and Australia's plan to return to Pakistan "The England and New Zealand cancellations seemed to reinforce the idea of the haves of the game treating the have-nots with disdain." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'45): The First Six in Test Cricket "Get Joe Darling into the same team with Graham Onions and you'd have a headline-writer's dream." THE REVIEW (16'30): Sport's Strangest Crimes: Allen Stanford, the Man who Bought...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: The retirement of Gareth Batty, and Shikha Pandey's wonderball "There's a lingering attitude that large swing is vulgar, somehow." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'15): Cricket at the Olympics: Paris, 1900 "The British team was a bunch of amateurs on a jolly to the Continent, and they ended up playing in the Olympics purely by accident." THE REVIEW (17'30): Cricket on the Continent by Tim Brooks "If I was the president of the Vanuatu cricket association, I'd sit down...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy finally makes his Trent Bridge debut, and Toby enjoys a flight of fancy about a rule change. "I was wondering whether it was Sherwood Forest in the distance. Which may be completely geographically inaccurate." FROM THE ARCHIVES (6'45): The cricket career of Lord Byron "His captain wrote 'Byron should never have been in the XI had my counsel been taken'." THE REVIEW (14'00): One Test Wonders podcast, hosted by Brian Murgatroyd "Tony Pigott comes up with...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Back at Lord's post-pandemic, and rediscovering the joy of net sessions in lockdown "It's the grabbing by the scruff of the neck that I particularly like. It feels like exactly the right way for an MCC member to express their disgust." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'00): Cricket and excuses "The match reports talk about the excellence of the bowling, not the fact that none of the batsmen could lift their arms because their shirts were too tight." THE REVIEW (19'05):...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Watching The Hundred, the changing language of cricket, and marking the death of John Woodcock  "Would I go again? I would go if asked by people I wanted to spend the evening drinking with." FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'10): The history of Vigoro "If you're a fervent cricket or a fervent tennis fan, perhaps it was hard to see how this new hybrid fitted into your life, and quite why you need it." THE REVIEW (17'25): Spinwash '93 (Sky Sports, available on...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Andy rediscovers the joy of bowling, and Toby enjoys a 'shock' England call-up "These days, like so many batsman who don't really bowl, I attempt offspin. Much to my astonishment, my second ball turned and hit middle stump. I had so little faith in my bowling, that I didn't celebrate but assumed that the keeper had knocked the bails off." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'25): Samuel Beckett, the cricketer "I recently read a theory that Waiting for Godot is all about...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Controversy at Windsor Great Park, and two intriguing tests   "We had a lovely afternoon that degenerated horribly in the last ten minutes. To the extent that many didn't shake hands at the end." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'30): Dennis Lillee's Aluminium Bat "Lillee didn't pretend that this was anything other than a promotional stunt. Unlike in baseball, this wasn't about enhancing performance. It was about getting product on TV just before Christmas to boost the...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Twitter chooses a favourite county, and bamboo bats   "Most persuasively, support Worcestershire because the pavilion has a choice of 20 homemade cakes. Interestingly, many encouraged supporting any county but Surrey." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'50): Charles Studd's remarkable journey from midwicket to missionary "Perhaps there is some crossover between the energy and drive that makes you become an international sportsperson or go around the world as a missionary." THE...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: County commentary, and the joy of being part of a longstanding cricket team "Every game there would be a couple of players who turned up not having been to bed, smelling a bit funny, and with pupils bigger than a cricket ball." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'55): A Hoax and a War: Peter Smith's Thirteen Year Wait for a Test Debut "Smith asks Wyatt whether he's in the starting XI, and Wyatt confesses that he hadn't expected to see him there. In a moment of beautiful...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Looking forward to watching county cricket, and Cricket the Musical in Sydney "I'm not expecting to go out for a pint with Kumar Roach after the game, but we can still be nattering at the boundary edge." FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'35): The Headingley Ashes Test, 2001 "At the beginning of the summer, Butcher had been in such horrible form that he had been playing for the Surrey Second XI. The chairman of selectors for the England test team, at the end of the season, was...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: A farewell to Faf du Plessis, and travelling back to 1939 courtesy of a wedding present "There's an advert for visiting Jamaica that boasts that it's 'only twelve days' travel from London'." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'50): The Hick Declaration, 1995 "There's no anger or open sign of rebellion. The camera pans across shocked looking England fans, who were clearly up for a celebration, and Hick can only manage a half raised bat to acknowledge their applause." THE REVIEW...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Joe Root's lockdown viewing, welcoming a future test cricketer, and a jawdropping shot at the BBL "When you're in those first, sleep-deprived moments of parenthood, I'd imagine that having a test match on in the background must be a great thing." FROM THE ARCHIVES (9'20): More cricketing etymology, including the origins of the word 'cricket' "This is where I'm going to get really Tudor with some of my pronunciations." THE REVIEW (19'05): The Cricketer, February 2021...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Cricket (possibly) at the African Games, and Toby returns to club cricket "My fellow opener had spent the off season lovingly knocking in his bat, only to nick one through to the keeper first ball of the innings. At least it proved his edges were well knocked in." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'50): The remarkable stories of Donald Weekes "An actor who played Othello in Moscow. A painter whose works were exhibited in Paris. A Hollywood screenwriter. A basketball player for...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Fawad Alam's masterful ducking, and the chance to spend a whole day listening to the test "Wagner defied two broken toes to bowl with energy and aggression. And he finally got his man." INTERVIEW (7'20): Chris Smith, from The Declaration Game "My process is what sometimes gets criticised in wider society: the echo chamber effect of Twitter." FROM THE ARCHIVES (25'30): The tragedy and triumph of the 1953 Christmas Eve test "When a country's at its lowest, we look to...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Tottenham Hotspur take to cricket, and a day out at the WBBL "I'm intrigued by where midfielder Eric Dier gets his wicket keeping gloves from." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'45): The Tendulkar Run-Out Riots "If you gave me the choice between being stoned or appled, I'd probably take the apple." THE REVIEW (18'35): The Strange Death of English Leg Spin by Justin Parkinson (published 2015) "You had international bowlers frequently unable to land it on the pitch. Warner became...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: A Zimbabwean great and a Zimbabwean prodigy; and Cricinfo's countdown of the greatest balls of the 21st century "As America decides its next President, welcome to the podcast which hopes the US doesn't need a super over." FROM THE ARCHIVES (7'15): The history of the Lord's bell "We're a podcast for everyone, amateur campanologists included." THE REVIEW (17'10): On Cricket by Mike Brearley (published 2018) "He considers himself responsible for two rule changes......

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Spotting Jack Russell and his easel, and Jason Gillespie leaves Yorkshire "For me, there's always a terror of being inane. Clearly the good people of Kew had no such qualms." FROM THE ARCHIVES (8'10): The accidental captain - the curious tale of Major Nigel Bennett "How far did the misunderstanding actually go? Well, it went far enough that he captained Surrey for the entire 1946 season." THE REVIEW (17'30): Beyond the Boundary (Netflix / ICC) "I daresay that we're...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: A return to village cricket, and England and Australia deal with pressure "I mourned the loss of the red velvet cake." THE INTERVIEW (08'10): Craig Dodson, author of A View of Australia from Fine Leg "I played with a lot of people in isolated areas. They talked about cricket being their one opportunity to break that isolation: cricket has such a vital role to play to connect society." FROM THE ARCHIVES (19'00): Ditchling v Afghanistan "The Ditchling side was depleted...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: A reverse sweep gone (horribly) wrong, and the fate of Dawid Malan "He ends up trying to play the shot on all fours. Which is never ideal for a batsman." FROM THE ARCHIVES (07'30): The Fusarium Test "I thought it would be quite fun to play horticultural Miss Marple." THE REVIEW (19'45): Original Spin - Vic Marks "We never say this about a book we review, but it could have been a bit longer." Recorded on 16 August 2020

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Jofra Archer going the extra mile, and Sky's coverage of BLM "By the end of the second test, Archer was in such a bad state - mostly because of Joe Root's belief in giving him 11-over spells." FROM THE ARCHIVES (07'30): Smokers vs Non-Smokers "To amass 803 suggests a degree of bloody-minded ruthlessness not quite in keeping with the occasion." THE REVIEW (17'20): Calling the Shots podcast - Dan Norcross and Adam Collins "The key thing I learnt was that there was...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Watching the 1984 England v West Indies test at Lord's, and the importance of Vikram Solanki's apppointment as Surrey's Coach "Maybe we should spend more time delving into the archives than keeping up with the latest game." FROM THE ARCHIVES (09'15): The Cricket Match at Sidmouth by David Jones "I thought that was a wheelbarrow, but it's definitely a cannon. Encouragingly pointing away from the field." THE REVIEW (19'35): The Great Romantic - Cricket and the Golden...

THE TEN MINUTE FORTNIGHT: Looking ahead to the summer, and celebrating Stephen Fay "The relationship between leather and hand sanitiser is something we're going to find out pretty soon." FROM THE ARCHIVES (07'48): "The most important figure in Aboriginal sport: Faith Thomas" "She was known as the fastest female bowler of her time, in the '50s - which she attributes to growing up throwing stones at galahs." THE REVIEW (15'00): The Test - A New Era, episodes 5-8 (Amazon Prime) "I learnt much...