The podcast review of the Year was an opportunity for us to invite back some previous guests to talk about their contributions to the pod and to listen and comment on some of the other highlights.
Our guests were Mike Knight of Newport Cricket Club who, with brother Dave, was awarded a BEM at the 2021 New Years Honours List. He came onto the pod in February and gave an enthralling interview about the history of the Rodney Parade ground.
Professor Richard Thomas of Swansea University had his book ‘Cricketing Lives: A Characterful History from Pitch to Page’ published by Reaktion Books in May. He talked to us about why he wrote the book and gave us a whistle-stop tour through the history of the game citing the greatest of names along the way including WG Grace, Len Hutton, Wally Hammond, Ian Botham and Ben Stokes as well as sketching out the importance of the women’s game and a brief history of the Ashes.
Chris Peregrine is a journalist who works for the Swansea Evening Post. As a member of Clwb Criced Bronwydd he contributed to a lovely episode all about the club as well as putting us in touch with people who could talk with some authority about the Swansea Mid-Week Leagues.
Along with Stephen Hedges and Jan Gray from the podcast the panel discussed the following clips:
Lord Peter Hain, anti-apartheid campaigner and local MP talked about the game held in 1995 between local club Ynysygerwn and the first ever all black club side to tour the UK from Soweto South Africa. His reflections were captured along with those of Ynys player Huw Jenkins and Soweto cricketer Gordon Templeton.
Mike Knight talking about the 1939 County Championship match between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire in which Wally Hammond scored an incredible triple century.
Richard Thomas talks about that long standing sporting rivalry, the Ashes. If you are interested in buying Richard’s book, go here:
http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143713
Mike Llewellyn, interviewed for our series of episodes entitled ‘Where Are They Know’, told a string of amusing stories. This one was one that didn’t make the original programme all about county player Albert Wright.
We interviewed members of the Conwy Ladies Cricket Team. Here, Emma Leighton – Jones and Llinos Hill talk about the importance of role models and the impact of ECB initiatives the All Stars and Dynamo Programmes.
On our visit to Clwb Criced Bronwydd we met long standing member Arwen Thomas who tells us about the time that cricket gives for a little bit of repartee.
We finish the review with a clip from our interview with Ken Lewis, 92 years old and the oldest surviving Glamorgan professional. His words are accompanied by the Soweto Gospel Choir who allowed us to use their music for the episode all about Ynysygerwn and Soweto. To find out a little more about them and their music go here:
https://www.sowetogospelchoir.com/
Thank you to all our guests in 2021. Here’s to an enjoyable cricketing year in 2022 when, hopefully, we will have a full programme of cricket and some more great stories to bring you.