Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear.   Most guests in this pub would probably agree that they want cricket to grow and be healthy. They want it to be more diverse, inclusive and attractive to new younger fans. They also, want to watch national teams to play entertaining winning Test cricket and be successful in other formats too. For many of us, that is England. But by no means exclusively. Those of us that follow English counties want them to entertain us a play great cricket and, ideally,...

Welcome back to the warm embrace (and warm beer) of the Bishop and Bear.   The chat this week is very much focused on the IPL as this year’s marathon begins. Who are the runners and riders? Where is the smart money going? Who are the stars and who is missing for each team? What makes the new smart replays smarter than the average replays? Why do Sunrisers Hyderabad get battered everywhere? Is their website still a UX disaster? (Don’t bother looking - it is I can assure you). Who is Jake...

A warm welcome once more to the Bishop and Bear.   A fabulous if ultimately unsuccessful Test series for England is behind us, but there is plenty to reflect upon. The IPL stretches out before us. No less than 66 days of, well pretty much the same as last year, but it will be fun.   As we look back to that enthralling Test series in India, we have two guests propping up our bar to cogitate on that and much more besides. Anindya has been busy penning his thoughts on whether or not India saw...

Sæll og velkominn til Biskups og Björn   I’m not sure you can ever fully trust Google Translate, but that should be Icelandic for “Hello and welcome to the Bishop and Bear”. If you happen to speak fluent Icelandic and it accidentally says something else, I can only apologise. Blame the landlord not the barman.   There is a reason we have gone full Icelandic though. Our guest on the Barstool of Bravado this week is Kit Harris. Not only assistant editor of Wisden but also author the...

Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear – the internet’s favourite virtual cricket pub (probably).   Well, it was a right old battering for England in Rajkot. The young Jazz Whale played all the right notes in exactly the right order and there were way too many bum notes from England against Bumrah and co. The Yorkshire middle order of Root and Bairstow looks under pressure and out of sorts. Can they battle their way back into some form in Ranchi? Ben Stokes thinks the pitch there looks...

Once again, a very warm welcome to the Bishop and Bear. We’re enjoying a little bit of breathing space between the 2nd and 3rd India Tests and the England team are enjoying themselves too with golf and family time in Abu Dhabi. Not Rehan Ahmed though. The lad thinks golf is for old men and he’ll be catching up with a Turkish TV series about the Ottoman Empire instead. Our guest this week is no stranger to the bar in the old Bishop and Bear. She has a stool and pint glass with her name on it....

Get your Kicks in the Bishop and Bear 66! With due deference to Bobby Troupe who wrote Route 66 (and not a lot of people know that), perhaps not even Joe Root who wears 66 on the back of his shirt of course.   What a week for Test Cricket, culminating in its own Super Sunday. Two incredible Tests, two extraordinary results. Three heroes in the form of Shamar Joseph, Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley. The latter, we think, bears an uncanny resemblance to the great Hedly Verity. Google some pictures...

Welcome back to the Bishop and Bear, brought to you this week in association with Nord VPN - working for a safer and better internet. Top rated by Cybernews, Nord VPN stands as the unrivalled leader in digital protection, offering exceptional speeds, impenetrable encryption, a no-log policy, cutting-edge features and an unparalleled commitment to privacy.   Our two Barstool of Bravado guests this week are the lads from The Cricket Podcast (and Guerillas of course) Jack and Max. Your Ursine...

This Bishop and Bear this week is brought to you in association with Nord VPN - working for a safer and better internet. Top rated VPN by Cybernews, Nord VPN stands as the unrivalled leader in digital protection, offering exceptional speeds, impenetrable encryption, a no-log policy, cutting-edge features and an unparalleled commitment to privacy. To be honest we are a bit confused as to which number Bishop and Bear this is. Looking back, we seem to have missed 62 completely, had 64 as our...

The Bishop and Bear this week is brought to you in association with Nord VPN - working for a safer and better internet. A Very Happy New Year! We have a great chat for you to start 2024. Let’s face it, you might have a bit of time, especially if you had been planning to watch days 3, 4 and 5 of the Cape Town Test!   Special guests seated on our Barstools of Bravado are Shelley - Destroyer of Worlds and India’s biggest fan and critic, Anindya. Not surprisingly, we focus on the extraordinary...

Welcome to the Bishop and Bear at Christmas. The perfect time to look back at the year in cricket. Being the friendly sort of boozer that we are, a whole bunch of guests have popped in to toast the season with you and of course your ursine landlord and episcopal barman.   As the drink flowed, everyone was more than happy to share their highs and lows of the year and we had our own Guerilla style awards too. Heroes, Villains, Clowns, Top teams and Magic Moments (both on and off the field) were...

Welcome once more into warm embrace of the Bishop and Bear. If its hot cricket conversation and convivial company you are after, you are in the right place.   India are in South Africa, although Durban seemed a bit more like Durham or Dundee yesterday and the first T20I was rained off. But that does not deter our two guests from delving into the prospects for the series in all formats.   Representing World Cup runners up India is a man who doesn’t need a barstool as he travels everywhere with...

Bloodied, battered and bruised after the World Cup, to quote Watford’s Life President Elton John, “we’re still standing” and delighted to welcome you back to the old B&B for some relaxing drinking and chatting. And who better to do that with, than our own David (Babbling) Brook? David joining your Ursine Landlord and Episcopal Barman can only mean one thing. There’s a West Indies series on the horizon.   So that’s where we start and look at two sides testing out new and younger talent in...

Percy Fender Memorabilia Auction: Online now here: https://auctions.bhandl.co.uk/lots?term=percy%20fender&categoryCode=SME Live Auction to be held Dec 5th at 10am. Address details below At Guerilla Cricket, we are huge fans of Percy George Herbert Fender. He has a starring role in our theme tune after all.  Often presented as a divisive, comical, Bertie Wooster, monocle wearing figure (he never did wear one, but his wife did), he was in fact the polar opposite. Sharp, witty, principled,...

Percy Fender Memorabilia Auction: Online now here: https://auctions.bhandl.co.uk/lots?term=percy%20fender&categoryCode=SME Live Auction to be held Dec 5th at 10am. Address details below At Guerilla Cricket, we are huge fans of Percy George Herbert Fender. He has a starring role in our theme tune after all.  Often presented as a divisive, comical, Bertie Wooster, monocle wearing figure (he never did wear one, but his wife did), he was in fact the polar opposite. Sharp, witty, principled,...

Percy Fender Memorabilia Auction: Online now here: https://auctions.bhandl.co.uk/lots?term=percy%20fender&categoryCode=SME Live Auction to be held Dec 5th at 10am. Address details below At Guerilla Cricket, we are huge fans of Percy George Herbert Fender. He has a starring role in our theme tune after all.  Often presented as a divisive, comical, Bertie Wooster, monocle wearing figure (he never did wear one, but his wife did), he was in fact the polar opposite. Sharp, witty, principled,...

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 48, The Final at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first, in doing so they were able to control the Indian top order, which kept losing wickets at the inopportune moments. Australia lost some early wicket, but thanks to a fabulous century from Travis Head Australia cruised home Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from 2nd semi final at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first, Australia bowled like the champions they are and only Heinrich Klassen and a David Miller century allowed them to claw themselves to 212. Australia went off like a train with Travis Head scoring a 40 ball 60. After that it all got a little hairy before the skipper Pat Cummins got them over the line. Learn...

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from the 1st Semi Final at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. India won the toss and elected to bat first putting on an impressive 397/4, centuries again for Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer. New Zealand chased gamely for the best part of 40 overs before the weight of the job finally got to them. India progress to the final. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 45 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. Indi won the toss and elected to bat first, the first 4 batsmen each got 50, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul going on to make hundreds in piling on a total of 410. The Netherlands were game but inevitably subsided to 250 in an entertaining game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 44 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. England won the toss and elected to bat first, a good opening partnership and Stokes getting a quick 80 odd got ENG to 337/9. Pakistan failed to keep up with the rate and lost wickets regularly. Bar some late order hitting and a 10th wicket stand of over 50 made it reapectable Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 42 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. In order to get to the semis they needed to score something over 400 and bowl SA out in about 5 overs for virtually no runs. Not the exact figures but it was along those lines, you get the drift. As it turns out they got a middling 244 and SA chased it down in 47 overs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 41 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first, what a great decision. Bar Kusal Perera's swashbuckling 51 SL fell to 70-5 inside the power play and never really recovered. A solid opening stand by Ravindra and Conway set NZ to chase it down in quick time to almost certainly nail on that semi final spot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

This is the The Guerilla Cricket Podcast and on this episode we have highlights from Game 40 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. England won the toss and elected to bat first. Big runs fro David Alan and a century from Ben Stokes ensured an imposing total of 339/9 always looked too much for Netherlands and so it proved to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices