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 Makers: Indian Cricket's Greatest Epic, by  Bharat Sundaresan with Gaurav Joshi (2023)
"It was on trend to hear that Justin Langer screams "Warrior! Warrior!" to Steve Smith in the nets."
Recorded 3 March 2024

Reverse Swept Radio 173: an English leggie in Zimbabwe, the first tied test, and an insider account of Aus vs India

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, generally you talk to the people who like him of course."
Recorded 4 February 2024

Reverse Swept Radio 172: cricket under the bedclothes, trying to save a painting for the nation, and Warne at Hampshire

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 and Timothy Abraham (2021)
"Pablo Escobar's son was sent to an English school, where as a wicket keeper he would put a match under the bails, attached to a piece of thread, which he would pull to claim a bowled."
Recorded 9 January 2024

Reverse Swept Radio 171: Aus v Pak at the SCG; the story of the fourth stump; and cricket in South America

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 spectator..."
THE REVIEW (20'35): You Guys are History: The Story of England's Black Cricketers (2021)
"Phil DeFreitas talks about getting ready to bowl and thinking about the sniper threatened by The National Front."
Recorded 10 December 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 170: a walk-out after one ball, Mark Butcher on the history of Black English cricketers, and the most miserable innings

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 pigeons, and a champion clog dancer, as a keeper he often purred 'Well bowled, Honey' from behind the stumps."
Recorded 5 November 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 169: a summer without cricket, the finest Australian you’ve never heard of, and a new Harry Pearson book

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 point."
Recorded 24 September 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 168: New Zealanders in Bristol, Warne vs Dravid and a Bodyline radio play

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 Lazenby
"We were disappointed to be robbed of the opportunity [to win], but at the end of the day I'm afraid few of us cared what happened."
Recorded 27 August 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 167: Cricket in Japan, cricket in a field, and cricket in a timeless test

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 really matter, but they do matter to us. And so it's extraordinary to watch a Nobel prize winner anxious about scoring runs in an amateur village game."
Recorded 23 July 2023 

Reverse Swept Radio 166: The Lord’s Hum, rediscovering a Bazball innings from a century ago, and reviewing Stumped the play

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): Gilbert: The Last Years of WG Grace, by Charlie Connelly (2015)
"It'll be a while until the next episode of Reverse Swept Radio, while Andy and I set about writing a new series of historical fiction novels to plug this gap in cricket literature."
Recorded 30 May 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 165: a delightful Twitter story, the ”most exciting cricket match”, and cricket historical fiction

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 unexpectedness that makes it special. If it’s scripted, it takes away everything that sport stands for.”
Recorded 9 April 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 164: Andy visits the Lord’s pavilion, Ian Botham loses his teeth, and a match fixing investigation on film

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 organisational psychology piece."
Recorded 25 March 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 163: ICC TV, pissed at the wicket, and unlocking T20s secrets

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 (22'10): Cricketers All (1949)
"This remains utterly bonkers to the point I thought that it was a wind-up, but at the end of the day some poor man has to go and set off some rockets: two for a draw, one for win. I have so many questions about this..."
Recorded 26 February 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 162: Aussie players learn from twitter, the remarkable career of Chris Schofield, and a delightful slice of cricket nostalgia

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 catch."
THE REVIEW (23'15): Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History from Pitch to Page by Richard Thomas (May 2021)
"Archie MacLaren was a limousine salesman later in his life. "By all accounts, what he tried to sell to his customers what they wanted or needed." A wonderful way to prick the pomposity of a man who is very much seen that way...."
Recorded 29 January 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 161: Remembering when Bangladesh nearly broke their Test duck, review of ”Cricketing Lives”, Ponting’s masterplan and the MCC’s wrong turn

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 in with a runner and can't play front-foot shots."
THE REVIEW (21'50): Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes (Amazon Prime, 2022) 
"I don't want to labour this point (while slightly labouring this point), but you need to enter into the experience of watching a documentary like this with the understanding that a deal has been struck: access has been traded for a certain narrative."
Recorded 09 January 2023

Reverse Swept Radio 160:  ”An innings played with one eye and one leg”, the new Ben Stokes doc and cricket’s restorative qualities

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 Four England Captains, 1988 by Neil Robinson (2015)
"Viv Richards wins the toss and says to Cowdrey 'I'll have a chat to my team and let you know what we're going to do'."
Recorded 11 December 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 159: A West Indian silver lining, the Test debut of DRS, and England’s year of four captains

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 Indian Cricket Dream (BBC - September 2022)
"One of the things that is best about it is that... it's very short."
Recorded 30 October 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 158: Farewell to Bob Cattell, a mathematician’s love of cricket, and a poor effort from the BBC

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 REVIEW (19'00): Jon Hotten - Bat, Ball and Field: The Elements of Cricket (July 2022)
"I was astonished to read the section on Shane Warne's mural - including his friends, imaginary friends, and people he admired, all chilling by a swimming pool."
Recorded 30 September 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 157: the curious tale of Sammy Guillen, Jon Hotten’s ”Bat, Ball and Field”, and swapping the cricket for a curry house

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 time with teenage boys will recognise those challenging moments, and will recognise that you get to your limits whether you've been an England all-rounder or not."
Recorded on 5 September 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 156: Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, Eisenhower goes to the test, and a close encounter with a Yorkshireman

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 (2020)
"The pursuit of the players become interesting stories in themselves."
Recorded on 24th June 2022

Reverse Swept Radio 155: a batsman attacks a bowler with a stump, and interviews about the Windies Rebel Tours

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 Ball that Changed Cricket (2018, SevenPlus)
"The laconic Kim Hughes comes up with one of the best lines I've heard: 'Built like Tarzan, bats like Jane'."
Recorded on 24th June 2022
 
 

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