

The Final Word Cricket Podcast
Adam Collins, Geoff Lemon
Cricket for everyone – your friendly guide to the world's strangest sport. Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins combine match analysis with irreverence, politics, interviews and history as they follow the game they love around the world. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword.Get your big NordVPN discount: https://nordvpn.com/tfw
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 22, 2025 • 1h 2min
The faces of England’s 2005 Ashes heroes, with Philip Brown
Season 18, Episode 28: Philip Brown is one of the game’s great photographers, having covered more than 300 Tests since 1988. Two decades ago, he had one of the best vantage points possible for the greatest Ashes series of modern memory. To mark the milestone, he found each of the 12 players England used that glorious summer to ask them a simple question: could he take their picture again? The result is a special piece of work. Once he and Adam have finished talking about that, they review Browny’s favourite five photos of the excellent 2025 Test summer in England.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
Get discounts on Noobru, the think drink: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy
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Aug 20, 2025 • 1h 18min
Our most wholesome day of cricket (and a one-wicket win!)
Season 18, Episode 28: Our inaugural podcast all-star fundraiser at Wormsley was a hit, with The Final Word team getting over the line with one wicket to spare, a big crowd turning out, and money raised to help kids in need. Especially, find out about the magic day had by Kate Mason and Alex Horne.
Join Geoff and Adam in Edinburgh as they continue on this week's TFW XI tour into Scotland, also farewelling Australian legend Bob Simpson, enjoying some Glenn Maxwell magic madness, latest possible developments within the Australian and English teams, Pakistan administrators playing silly buggers again, India's strange call ahead of the women's World Cup, and some Metrobank Fever.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
Get discounts on Noobru, the think drink: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 16, 2025 • 1h 33min
Story Time 235 – The chase for Skase remains
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, Adam and Geoff are back together and heading back to Italy in the 1940s, via a detour to Spain in the 2020s. A couple of long-running clues are finally broken down, piece by piece, as we discover some Mary Poppins history, dual-sport families, and place a great of the game in a different space and time. It's a fun one.
Your Nerd Pledge numbers for this week:
10.21 - Chris Dobbins
6.34 - Jeremy Bourke
3.92 - Matt Wing
1.92 - Aravind
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, PLUS a YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 14, 2025 • 1h 10min
TFW's 10th Anniversary Special! The lost pilot episode
Season 18, Episode 26: It is true: The Final Word has turned 10. Technically our first episode was released on July 23, 2015, but July 23 this year was in the middle of a rather busy Test match and Test series, so we thought we'd wait for a quieter moment. It's a good chance to sit and take stock of what has happened, as a quiet side project done for the fun of it has become such a big part of our lives. Adam and Geoff catch up for a look back, before we dust off our rarest archival find: the pilot episode that we recorded a couple of weeks before that first episode was published, as proof of concept, when our old friends and colleagues Vithushan Ehantharajah and Will Macpherson were young friends and colleagues, and we all gathered for a preview chat before the 2015 Ashes. This was never published, beyond a handful of people hearing it on Soundcloud, but it's been remastered and is finally ready for its close-up. It's funny to listen back all that way.; time travel does exist. Thanks for coming along with us on whatever parts of that trip you've joined.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, PLUS a YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 12, 2025 • 1h 39min
Umpire Bharat is better than your umpire
Season 18, Episode 25: Top End cricket is happening with Australia and South Africa in Darwin, but our attention is on Leicestershire league cricket where the umpiring controversy of the millennium has blown up. That also leads to the story of how Bharat got banned from a local tournament. In other news, the idea of separate divisions in Test cricket is gathering steam, as is the possible sale of the Big Bash, while a disastrous 10-over league crashes out in the Cayman Islands, and some weird stuff goes on in county cricket. Bharat Sundaresan joins Geoff Lemon.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, PLUS a YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 10, 2025 • 1h 29min
Story Time 234 – Brazil's Smoking Cobras beat the Axis Powers
It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, an unexpected detour into the World War II battle for the Gothic Line in Italy, via a search for a captaincy Bannerman. Also, the Hindu bridge between India and Indonesia, an underappreciated bridging of an era, and a battle of the slowest slow men. Bharat Sundaresan joins Geoff Lemon.
Your Nerd Pledge numbers for this week:
7.00 - Brent Simmonds
51,834 - Aditya Sutresna
6.32 - Satchmo Distel
3.96 - Mark Stein
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, PLUS a YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 7, 2025 • 50min
The Final Word with Benny Howell: ADHD and pro cricket
Season 18, Episode 24: The Hundred is here – a competition that divides opinion and likely always will. But what do the players think? Especially those who’ve made careers in the shorter forms? Benny Howell is one of them. At the start of his journey he was an opening bat, but over the last decade or more he’s been the man with a million slower balls. The pioneering 36-year-old begins another season this week with the Birmingham Phoenix and remains as passionate as ever. A big part of Benny’s creativity as a cricketer, as he explains in this in-depth discussion, is the ADHD he is hardwired with. As one of the only cricketers happy to talk about neurodivergence, he goes into how having ADHD was a handbrake as a restless youngster and how it was harnessed to get the best from himself.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, PLUS a YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 5, 2025 • 49min
TFW Daily - Looking back at the Anderson-Tendulkar jamboree
England India Daily, 5th Test, The Oval, Day 6: It's all over bar the podcast reviews. A intense few weeks with 25 days of Test cricket, much of high quality, some of it less so, but all of it entertaining. Daniel Norcross has been your steadfast guide through those weeks, and joins Geoff Lemon for an outside view of what has been a truly memorable contest.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, plus ONE YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: https://nordvpn.com/tfw
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 4, 2025 • 35min
TFW Daily - Siraj and Woakes in thrilling finish - England India 5th Test, The Oval Day 5
England India Daily, 5th Test, The Oval, Day 5: A series as good as this deserved a finish as good as this. It should have been a stroll for England on the final day, needing 35 runs with four wickets in hand - even if one of those wickets was Chris Woakes with his arm in a sling. The fact that Woakes had to walk out to bat will tell you that things didn't go that smoothly. India's tour hero Mohammed Siraj had the ball in hand. So began one of the famous last chapters of a match, and a series...
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, plus ONE YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: https://nordvpn.com/tfw
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aug 3, 2025 • 28min
TFW Daily - One final stanza remains - England India 5th Test, The Oval Day 4
England India Daily, 5th Test, The Oval, Day 4: So we go to Day 25 of the series, with 35 runs or 3 wickets to decide the fate of the series. Unless Chris Woakes can bat? For most of Day 4 it looked like another England miracle was panning out, thanks largely to Harry Brook and Joe Root, as Mohammed Siraj and company toiled. But with wickets falling near the end, India’s bowlers will get one last chance on morning five. Cameron Ponsonby joins Daniel Norcross from The Oval.
Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword
We’re giving away a brand new Virat Kohli Genius King cricket bat, gloves, and case, plus ONE YEAR'S supply of Noobru Pro - worth over £1600!
For entry, T&Cs, and 15% off any purchase go to: noobru.com/finalword
Tickets for our Wormsley match, August 18: uk.emma-live.com/WormsleyFinal2025
Get your big NordVPN discount: nordvpn.com/tfw
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - fighting for the rights of workers since 1919: mauriceblackburn.com.au
Get 10% off Glenn Maxwell's sunnies: t20vision.com/FINALWORD
Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com
Title track by Urthboy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices