Episode 30 - The Caribbean Cricket Podcast, Machel St Patrick Hewitt

Welcome back to the Sunday Service with Church and Vickers - we hope you’ve all had a peaceful cricketing week.

This week, Hector is joined by a champion of West Indies cricket.

Having spent 22 years in the education industry - he is about to bow out as a Vice Principal at Sedgehill Academy. 

Now, he is turning his attention wholeheartedly to the media world in which he has had much success so far. Alongside commentary duties for the BBC and TalkSPORT, he also covers EFL matches for PA Media.

Most notably, he is founder and co-host of the highly acclaimed podcast, The Caribbean Cricket Podcast, where he brings West Indies cricket to the forefront of the Caribbean diaspora and beyond.

The podcast has recently passed 17k YouTube subscribers, and averages over 500k views per month.

Machel St Patrick Hewitt joins Hector this week to talk all about his career thus far, discuss his plans for The Caribbean Cricket Podcast, and talk about his step away from the education sector.

Also on the episode, Church and Vickers continue their new, hard-hitting, segment; "What cricket sound is this?" - and Church delivers a sermon which exclusively reveals the result of the Parishing XI’s first home game yesterday against Farting Willows.

A huge thank you to Machel for coming on this week's show. We look forward to following his media ventures as they go from strength to strength.

Another big thank you goes to our friends at Newbery Cricket, who are offering up their award-winning SPS bat for this month's competition giveaway. You can read all about it via the following link: https://www.wisden.com/cricket-features/the-bat-test-2026

You can also check out the premium equipment that Newbery has to offer here

If you have liked this episode of Sunday Service, please make sure to rate and review us, and share us on social media platforms.

Make sure to get in touch, we want to hear your cricketing thoughts and guest suggestions:

Email us at: sundayservice.pod@yahoo.com

‘X’ - sundayservice22

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us again on the Sunday service with Church and Vickers. It's been a busy week, and England have named their first squad of the summer. And the fact that every podcast, website, and pundit have debated, processed, and given their conclusions means that we're not going to do that today, are we, Church?

SPEAKER_03 0:20

We're not hecticus. Can I be honest? I'm bored of it. I'm really, really bored now. So I'm very glad they've named their squad. And good luck to them. That's all I would say. Good luck to them, because it is a rather tasty looking New Zealand squad.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Exciting stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Sunday service with Church and Vicus.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

It is very good, may I say, to see Eilees Cranston back, who play beautifully. Wednesday I dealt with a rat in the garden for my mum. I saw the England Test Squad and digested the news that Liam Dawson has called time on his first class career. Just go and look at his numbers, everybody. Fantastic and also a top quality fella. Thursday it was the train to Leeds. Friday was the start of Yorkshire against Surrey at Headingley, where you find me this morning ahead of day three. So, what's on the show this week, please, young Hector?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well, Church, your cricketing sermon exclusively reveals the result of the Parish's first home game yesterday against farting willows.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Ah, the big rivalry with farting willows. Our guest this week is a man who knows everything about West Indian cricket and has his own podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

We might get some tips from him actually later on this week. And we have the latest edition of our hard-hitting feature, What Cricket Sound is this?

SPEAKER_03 2:20

And thanks to our friends at Newberry Cricket, we have a competition, as always, where you can win one of their magnificent SBS cricket bats, which is, and I'll say it again, a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful piece of willow. And don't forget you can get in touch with us, just email sundayservice.pod at yahoo.com or tweet at Sundayservice22.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Lost to get through, so let's get cracking with the Sunday service.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

This is Cameron Steele, and you are listening to the Sunday service with church and vicars.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Good morning. I trust your cricketing week has been full of decision making about picking the right squad for the opening test against New Zealand, and that your meeting to pick that squad didn't go on too long and wasn't full of PowerPoint presentations. Now, it's been another busy week in the parish, and on Monday I returned from the land of Robin Hood and Little John after watching Surreyshire and Nottinghamshire cancel each other out in a hard-fought game of championship cricket. On the train back, I fell asleep and had a dream that can only be described as strange. In it I was back at Boycott Vicarage, serving tea and chocolate cake to three deities of cricket broadcasting, namely Mr. Arlot, Mr. Bellow and Mr. Johnson. What this means, I do not know, but Freud would be having a field day. Tuesday I was up bright and early to head to the Ovalshire to say words on Surreyshire women against Essexhire women in the One Day Cup. There was a marvellous moment when an Essexhire batter came to the wicket sporting the SS Jumbo bat. Nostalgia was prevalent, remembering the early days of the Jumbo and the use of linseed oil to get your jumbo ready for action. It was marvellous, and Surreyshire won a close encounter, and I returned to the parish thinking of buckle pads and tucking one's cricket trousers into your socks before padding up. Wednesday I made my parish visits and saw the infamous Vegas gang from the WI cake sale. The £391 raised was handed over and has been safely locked away in the parish safe. In the evening, the Parish 11 met in the Badgers Googly to discuss tactics for Saturday's first home game of the season against farting willows. I did notice that more analysis was being done on Trevor the Landlord's beef and carrot pie than on Saturday's opposition, but a big decision was made. Sexy Rex, our wicket keeper, who made a monumental naught not out in 32 balls in our defeat to Little Winging, was promoted to open the batting, to take advantage of the power play, and to take into account his legs, which tend to lose all momentum after half an hour of batting. The thinking. Firstly, Sexy Rex will be in no rush. Secondly, he can blunt the new ball. Thirdly, we need him behind the stumps when we bowl, and it gives him more recovery time. And fourthly, and most importantly, he has to leave the game early because he's got tickets to a Neil Diamond tribute act on Saturday night. This is the sort of data stats and thinking that international teams do. Thursday I left the parish to head to the land of boycott Truman and route because Friday was the opening day of Surreyshire and Yorkshire at Headinglyshire, and that is where you find me today on the third morning of the final round of championship games before we all head headlong into the start of T20. Mr Vickers is once again in charge of the parish, and he kept me fully up to date with our first home game of the summer yesterday against Farting Willows. We won the toss and decided to field, and Farting Willows posted a healthy 220 off their 40 overs. Our star performer with the ball was Mr. Reynolds with his non-turning leg brakes. I say non-turning, but we're not actually sure whether they are spinning or not, because Mr. Reynolds has a slight issue with actually landing the ball on the facilities kindly provided by the ground staff. But Mr. Vickers informed me that there was a strong breeze that picked up across the ground, and after his first two overs went for 42, the wind moved his slow forward tosses bamboozling the batters and leading to impressive figures of 7 for 112 off his 10 overs. Then we started our run chase, and something happened to Sexy Rex in the first game as opener. He started to bat like a right-handed Brian Charles Lara. Wickets were fawning at the other end, but Sexy Rex was playing shots all around the ground. He wasn't able to run after keeping for 40 overs, so he just struck boundaries. He glided to his sentry and with five overs left we were 215 for seven. Victory was ours, but Sexy Rex then remembered he had to be at his Neil Diamond tribute concert and hobbled off 135 retired hurt. And whilst he was humming Sweet Caroline taking off his pads, we lost our last two wickets for three runs, and victory was for farting willows. But Mr. Vickers tells me the boys are still in good heart, and Sexy Rex had his blue jeans signed by Neil Diamond, who is actually our local butcher Mr. Smith, who does actually look very much like Neil Diamond. I have allowed Mr. Vickers to organise his first evening of painting in the Badgers Googly this evening. It's a fine idea that will lead to much needed funds for the parish Burr Bath, although I am a little concerned about his decision to use Mrs. Watch, aged 83, avid knitter and keen campanologist, as his live model for the evening. I discussed with Mr Vickers that maybe his first evening of painting should be more landscaped and portrait, but he sounded confident and I've given him the responsibility. Now, my cricketing friends, there is a small matter that is concerning me. A number of games in the County Championship have ended on the final day with all eyes turning towards clocks, waiting for ten to five when hands can be shook and everyone can go home. I feel a change needs to come where umpires, those men and women, who are out there in the middle, the guardians of our game, if you will, can have the power at tea time on the final day to take the game that is heading for an obvious draw round the back of the pavilion to put it out of its misery. I fully understand there will be magnificent supporters of our beautiful game who have paid for a day of cricket that will want to see some action after tea. But do they really want to watch players going through the motions up to the hour of 450? Yes, they will learn how to eat up time by tying a bootlace for five minutes, or a batter needing to call for a long sleeve sweater and then miraculously forgetting how to put it on and having to be instructed for 10 minutes that their legs don't go into the sleeves. But surely saying enough is enough at tea would make more sense. Perhaps an answer is to put something on of the cricketing nature for the spectators in the post-T final session. You could have an emergency local cricketing historian on standby who, after a call, can hot foot it to the ground and join the gathering to discuss the history of our beautiful game. Alternatively, just let the spectators on the outfill with their bats and balls to play, have a wander and take in our magnificent grounds in this country. The players give it everything, but watching top class openers bowling a couple of overs a very stiff spin, I think the game would be better served calling time at 3.40. Plus, you would beat the traffic. So, my cricketing friends, that was the week that was in the parish. Busy, joyous, and at times controversial. I hope your cricketing week is not full of like for like that are actually not like for like injury substitutions, and as always, the most important thing back well everyone. Back very, very well.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

It's pretty obvious one again there.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Can I just say that anybody who didn't get that right needs to go and have a little look at themselves in the mirror because it's so obvious. You should know that.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

So obvious. What was the tune? I was trying to remember the name.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Oh, I can't remember what I was humming now. It was it would it would have been a Sunday morning type tune. Probably a hymn of some sort, I would have thought.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, it was a banger. It was a banger.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Yeah, and also the sound off the bat, it was obviously Hamid. Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Very crisp. Well, now we're gonna dive into this week's sound, and the question is, what cricket sound is this? If you think you know, email sundayservice.pod at yahoo.com or tweet at Sundayservice22.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Hi, Matt Fisher, Surrey and England. Um, you're listening to the Sunday service with church and vicars.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

And now it's time for our cricketing guest. Macil St. Patrick Hewitt is a man of many, many talents. While about to step away, he has spent 22 years in the education industry, now bowing out as a vice principal at Sedgehill Academy. Throughout this time, he has formed a formidable media career in cricket and football. Alongside commentary duties for the BBC and Talk Sport, he also covers EFL matches for PA Media. Most notably, though, he is founder and co-host of the highly acclaimed podcast, the Caribbean Cricket Podcast, where he brings West Indies cricket to the forefront of the Caribbean diaspora and beyond. Recently, passing 17,000 YouTube subscribers and averaging over 500,000 views per month, the podcast is set to reach new levels this summer, with Mackel stepping away from the education sector to focus full-time on his media duties. He joined me earlier in the week and I started by asking him how he was and how his start to the season had been.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

Yeah, I'm alright, you know. Um start to the season. It's been interesting. It's been an interesting one. Done a few um done a few games, uh been at Surrey um with Churchy recently, was at Essex um before then. And uh do you know what? It's just it's a bit weird because just I feel like just as everyone's properly getting into the county championship, it's it's it goes on a hiatus, which um of course there's lots of big debates about the whys and the why nots of all of that. But um I I I think I say that because I was enjoying the start of this season. I I feel like there was loads of intrigue and um some teams performing possibly a bit stronger or or weaker than people expected, and I think also because it was all leading, well felt like it was all leading towards um the England squad announcement, and you like you were seeing players like Emilio Gay put back-to-back sentries up and going, I wonder if he's gonna get an England team. I was I I was able to see James Rue at Essex a few weeks back, never seen him live before, and within about what? Within about I don't know, five minutes of watching him, I was like, Oh, I get it. Like so uh so yeah, so it that that's been that's been super interesting to to watch it all.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, well I know what you mean. It kind of feels a bit bit flat now that we've had this massive dramatic build-up, and then now we've got the selector, we've got the squad, and and we're moving to the T20s pretty much before the test. But if we just start with your current day job, I know you're about to finish, you spent 22 years in education, currently your vice principal at Sedghill Academy. You as I mentioned, you're moving away to focus on on full-time roles within the media. But can you just talk us through that decision to move away and talk us through your time in education as well?

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Yeah, so I mean it's weird because when is the right time to do anything like that? And that goes for anybody at any age and any stage of their life. I think I'm definitely a believer that there's no right time and there's no there's no such thing as being too young or too old. It's it's just about are you good or aren't you? Um and more importantly, can you find um can you find a niche or a way in that makes you quote unquote stand out in any way? And I'm I'm fortunate in that I I guess I have two major niche interests which um for whatever reason um I don't know for whatever reason I've been able to build a bit of a profile around it. So one of them obviously is non-cricket related in terms of uh Bromley Football Club, which is um who I've supported since I was a basically a teenager, and it just so happens that they're going on the biggest generational run of their entire ex of their existence, and it just feels like right place, right time. That's nothing to do with me. Smallest club in the whole English pyramid, uh in their football league pyramid, um doing unfathomable things, and I just happen to cover them, so it's just right place, right time, and then at the same time, on the flip side, uh the West Indies cricket team going on a generational run in the opposite direction. I just happen to be in the right place, right time with regards to that, um, as well. So um so it it it kind of you know sports media's a funny thing, right? It's it's just something I'm passionate about, and that doesn't mean I'm not passionate about education. I I love working in education, love certainly love um helping uh and seeing young people prosper in whichever which way, but there's always been something tugging at my heartstrings, um, and that's generally been covering sports, whether football or cricket. Um and yeah, I think I think I'm fortunate in that the beauty of education is you can leave, but you can always jump back in. So I I just thought to myself, recent over the last year and a bit, I've just been like, oh, just take the risk. What's the worst that can happen? You have to go back. So that's that's kind of that's kind of where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So now the the transitions into full-time media stuff, you say you you cover a lot of of well, football and cricket are the main ones, but if we can talk about your main venture, the Caribbean cricket podcast, which you founded and and have posted since 2019, in a time where, as you say, West Indies are sort of going on an all-time, all-time low run, but also they don't get much media attention anyway, probably because of that. How important was it to you to sort of keep keep keep the flame burning? And and can you just take us back to the early days? When did the initial idea come about? What was the plan?

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Yeah, so the I mean the real early days, all credit to my dad. I think everybody's cricket story is relatively similar in that. I think to get into cricket, I maintain that nobody just decides one day I'm gonna get into cricket. You have to have somebody who brings you to the game, right? Unlike football, where I don't know, people are just kicking the ball around, so you go and kick a ball about, right? Whereas cricket, someone's got to bring you to the game. So I was fortunate in that my dad loved cricket, uh specifically the West Indies cricket team, and he would make me sit down and watch test matches, um, and we had moved to the UK. My dad had moved to the UK in the mid-80s uh from Jamaica. Um so growing up, I was kind of part of the the Caribbean diaspora in the UK, and I was I I always say to people that I was just about young and old enough to catch the dying embers of the West Indies team coming over here who didn't lose. Um and so my dad was huge into that, and it I think it meant something to the diaspora to to see the West Indies team come over here with all the greats and sun and so forth. And then if we fast forward from that, so that's the love of cricket, and then if we fast forward from that, um it gets to about 2015. Now, by this time, I'm seeing the West Indies declining. Well, we win the odd game every now and again, we have our odd moments of success every now and again, 20 uh 2012 T20 World Cup, 2004 Champions Trophy, but generally we're we're declining. And I started to realise around the time that Tony Colzier was when Tony Kolzia passed, actually, uh rest in peace, Tony Kolzia. I started to realise there's not really any media out there covering West Indies cricket. And again, the Caribbean is is interesting in itself, and of course, West Indies is a conglomeration of different nations. So you can source information on cricket in the Caribbean, but each nation does its own thing. So Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, they're largely covering their own players as and loosely the West Indies team, right? As a collective. And I and I thought for those of us who are in the diaspora, whether the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, where the majority of the Caribbean diaspora would be of those three countries, I was like, there's nothing that really connects the dots. We're we're out here starving for the information. So that I started writing some blogs, and then eventually those blogs in about 2017-2018, because there was a lot of turmoil going on in the cricket behind the scenes, and I was kind of I was kind of writing it for myself, but every now and again it they would pick up a bit of traction. And then um around 2019, I spoke to Santoki, who of course is the other member of Caribbean Cricket Podcast, who I'd met through the diaspora, and said, I think we could start a podcast, you know, about West Indies cricket, because a lot of people still a lot of people say West Indies is their second team, right? Or they love even if it's not, everyone loves watching the West Indies, right? So I was like, I think we should. should start a podcast because there was no podcast covering West Indies cricket. Um and there was nothing really nothing was really covering the the the the hidden stories in West Indies cricket. So I said let's start it. So we started it and then COVID came. But that was the perfect time for for us to have the podcast because it meant we couldn't go anywhere which meant all of a sudden every West Indian well not every West Indian players but a lot of people are available to us to start talking to because everyone was obviously on lockdown. And so it like within the first 10 episodes like we'd had we got Ravnaresh Sawan on and um once Sawan came on it was then easier to go to other people and go do you want to come on the podcast? And like Sawan had essentially given us the call sign early doors. Lockdown in a weird way helped it gave it a a run and jump so to speak and then once we had finally came out of lockdown and and the pandemic we were relatively established at that point. And then yeah you fast forward from there what three years now and I think it will sound I I hate saying this but I do think it's true. I think we've become a bit of a go-to source for news around West Indies cricket. And I mean that not just for the fans but like cricket West Indies themselves when they want to get something out there they will come to us and say here's some information or they'll be like we can come on the show and explain this. So I think we're seen as like a reputable news outlet to cover without being within the inner sanctum but we're respected as an independent outlet that will that you can come on the show and know that we're not gonna try and get some hot take out of you or clip something that's going to embarrass you or or something like that. Just actually just talk about the cricket.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

And talk news yeah absolutely because now I mean you're averaging over 5000 views a month you just passed 17000 subscribers so yeah absolutely I'd agree that that's kind of the main hub I think for everyone not just West Indies fans where they'll go to for West Indies cricket.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

I guess just asking for a friend what what's your secret to podcasting in now you've got a bit of extra time on your hands have you got any mega plans coming up in an ideal world if if I if I could like if I could um wave my Harry Potter wand right now or staff whatever it is AS if I could wave it um I would want this to become something that has something every day. Now that might sound a bit silly um because who's really got time to watch something every day but what I mean is when I say something every day something different every day so not just me on the show like I'm I think the expansion of it is bringing more people into the network itself with different like different outlets and focus um so maybe one day you know is the an into uh like a show with an international cricketer another day is some uh field drills I'm just spitballing but something like that so I think we've gone we've grown past the oh come on the show and let's just talk about cricket yeah that's great and we're good at that but I think it's got the capacity now to be all encompassing with other aspects um of the cricket as well and we're really big this a bit of a um this is a a bit of a spoiler we're currently discussing watch this space we're currently discussing with some people in the region about using the podcast as a way to sponsor some cricketers so like like some of the younger lot coming up through the system and so we get a lot of we get a lot of with the Caribbean diaspora it's kind of ingrained in our culture to to like send remittance back to the Caribbean to whether you're your your your wider family etc so we just started to think about an idea of well hold on if if people are used to sending uh resources back to the Caribbean and but we also have we have a significant audience that loves West Indian cricket why don't we combine the two ideas and start to so we at the moment it's the the the working idea is the Caribbean cricket spons what do we call it the Caribbean cricket sponsorship something like that it'll probably change it's like I say it's very embryonic right now but it's things like that where we're now starting to think about much bigger ideas than just your standard spot uh podcast if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah yeah that sounds amazing that that would be brilliant and I imagine it it would take days to sort of sieve through it all but if you could just give us a brief synopsis on where West Indies cricket are at the moment you know where the main problems are and and if there are any not easy fixes but fixes that can be put into place.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

Right so right here right now as we're recording this the biggest issue is money money money money um the the cut from the ICC is not enough for it to be self-sustaining they just released their financial report for the last calendar year and we made a loss of or we have a deficit of what was it 26 million the next year the next year the deficit is supposed to be another 20 million did they say and then when the when the FTP starts in 2027 and England and India tour us again that then wipes out that deficit so what effectively effectively we are in a trap we're in a trap where um we completely depend on England touring the Caribbean and India touring the Caribbean to turn a profit the World Cup year for the 2024 T20 World Cup we turned a huge profit for that T20 World Cup. Unfortunately the Caribbean is not conducive as a time zone um which is why we don't get a lot of tournaments like that because that would be one easy way to help our revenue by instead of all the tournaments always being held in India um andor England or um maybe we could share it out a bit more maybe maybe that would help maybe that would help things um so money is the issue and when you have deficits you start to how that then has a knock on effect on the cricket is and as they've done this year is they start to cut things basically West Indies cricket right now is suffering from austerity our our four-day championship our equivalent of the county championship was reduced from basically cut in half and so instead of what traditionally has been go back to 2020 2019 sorry it would have been 10 rounds uh 10 games for every team a few years back it was seven this year it was three um and that's just not sustainable right you can't create a good cricket team from just three first class games a season um similarly the super 50 which is the white ball tournament that was cut last year as well from 30 games down to 12 or something yeah 30 to 12 which again how do you improve then as a white ball side when you're not even playing the cricket so I kind of feel weird in that my my present take on West Indies cricket is we are a full member nation in name but we are an associate nation in standards um and we don't and we still get full member money but that full member money is not enough to get us out of associate standards if that makes sense. So but to really put our decline in um in context I think we have declined to a I whenever I say this I get a lot of West Indian cricket media and fans like uh telling me to wind my neck in but I always say that our standards have fallen to we are the best of the associate sides and I'm not even sure on a good day if you could even argue that as we saw in 2023 when we didn't even make the the the 50 over world cup having been knocked out in the qualifiers with all the associate teams so um so yeah so I I think our standards on the whole are associate standards but there is a glimmer of hope they've recently started to properly invest in um a high performance academy based in Antigua um that I hope so what they want that to be they want that to become the hub of all things West Indies cricket. So all of the promising youth will go there the the men's and senior women's teams will go there and actually have and they want to also use it as an international hub.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

So what they want to then do once it's completely finished is they want to then encourage international teams to come there in their like even county teams come there in their off season and get a proper high quality um uh performance centre but in the Caribbean who says no to that right so they're they're starting they're starting to forward think about how do we get ourselves out of this hole but the problem they've got is our fan base things like that don't yield reward for five to ten years but our fan base want well they want answers and they want success now so so if it who who who is willing to put another five to ten years of decline on the pitch um down to trust the process that is a risk yeah yeah I can I could talk about West Indies cricket all day long but you know if we talk about some of the stuff you you do away from the podcast you compensate for the BBC you do commentary and and and some podcasts for talk sport as well can you just talk us through you know I guess one what you how you prepare for all these various country games you mentioned you know you're at Surrey you're at Essex you're doing a whole load of different teams in this one bracket how you prepare for it what your summer looks like and and yeah how much you enjoy doing both those roles so I don't have I don't have like a formal journalism degree of any sort or like formal kind of like comms experience or like sorry like I've not formally studied it and but in a weird way teaching in a weird way teaching has prepped me for it more than you would think um speaking speaking in front of 300 students and knowing how to hold an audience with 300 students is is a great way to know how to hold an audience when you're in front of a mic is is is what I would say.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

So I always I've always said that the the fundamentals of teaching and basically performing every day all day for in front of young in front of young people gave me a really good sound uh base of certainly knowing how to talk with confidence uh with a mic right sure um and then it was about and then also my first kind of introduction to commentary was probably football so I'd already done like a lot of football related comms for BBC again through the Bromney stuff. So that was some helpful stuff. And then when I came into the cricket uh I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity with talk sport because they wanted a West Indies expert um and again because by then Caribbean cricket podcasts had grown so they were like well and people in TalkSport knew me and they were like well let's get him on he knows these players inside out so again initially with talk sport it was a case of got coming on and kind of doing like colour comms and letting the main guys just get on with it. But once you're in that environment then it's about really watching and learning and seeing how the the the main guys do it and it wasn't so much me listening for what they said but more so the melody of how they said it. I've always found that that was more important so studying when they stopped when um when they when they when they allowed the the color comms guy to come in when they just let things breathe and just were happy to just let the kind of noise in the background tell itself when they weren't didn't talk about the cricket. So I I equate it to like when football players or cricket players are in a squad and you know when they say to players after they've retired who did which managers influence you the most I equate it to something like that where you're just watching these people you're you're studying their graft and their craft and going okay take that from you I'll take that from you oh I've picked up that from you um so then when I then got onto um BBC and then you go around the county scene and everybody's different every single comms guy or or or woman sorry I should say person um is different. So then even then even if you have your style you still have to adapt that style for who you're doing doing commentary with so I think I think this is my third year of doing it and I I'd say this is the year where I've got where I'm completely comfortable with it because I know how to prep in terms of I do thorough like my research I have a research book and that research book um every game I've done like the it's literally next to my foot right now I don't start a new one each season I just every game I do like so when I did Surrey versus Essex Surrey versus Essex um so when I did when I did Surrey versus Essex the reason why I don't go into a new book is because I just go back through my notes from any time I've ever seen Essex anytime I've ever seen Surrey and it's just a really helpful guide to kind of weave the narratives together so so I feel like I've become very adept at knowing there's certain teams on the county scene where I'm like I feel like I know this team inside out Northhants believe it or not Leicestershire Surrey because it's so close Surrey's ground is like 30 minutes from my house maybe 30 35 minutes perfect um and then Essex to an extent but then the team that I actually support is Kent so there you go.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

That's nice yeah that's a that's a good mix of of clubs there but it's not just cricket as you touched on Bromley you know you commentate on them you've covered them for PA media and you recently I saw you were on the overlap you know talking to Wayne Rooney Connie Cody and uh Paul Mullin that must have been quite surreal shoot but if you could just talk us through your love obviously you love football and cricket what are the main differences there and and what are your main selling points I guess on on both sides there's something really idyllic about cricket which I can't call it the je ne sais quoi like there's to me there is nothing better than a four-day match or a test match and just soaking it all in like I think I think sometimes people expect expect you to be apologetic about the longer formats of the game right but there is nothing wrong with just watching a game and yes okay sometimes it's going slow sometimes it's going super interesting but there's there's nothing wrong with like sitting in a stadium and just soaking the atmosphere in and the lulls of play things as minute as the pigeons on the pitch um to a a flowing cover drive and I think also what cricket lends itself to is you you don't have to stay in your seat like you can walk you can you can walk around you can go to different vantage points you can take different views in like you go on the pitch as well yeah yeah you could you go on the pitch at the at the interval you um you you can disappear for half an hour and come back like and I think all of those things make up why cricket is so good and funny enough I equate it to which will it will sound disparaging but I mean it in the I actually mean this in the most positive sense it's high praise um um cricket watching cricket for me is like what it was like when I used to watch Bromley in non-league football obviously Bromley are in the in league one now but when I used to watch Bromley in non league it was again that feeling on the terrace of just like I can walk around this ground at any point back in the days when you didn't have to stay in your designated area I can walk around the ground I can go get a pint.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

So excessive yeah yeah and that freedom whilst the game is going on I think is unmatched right so that's for me is the biggest selling point of cricket I think everyone always thinks that cricket has can only be sold by the Razumatazz of the shortest format of the game when actually there is a there is a narrative and a tell that can that you can weave within the longest format of the game which we shouldn't be embarrassed um to tell and appreciate um football football obviously is just football I think football benefits from ultimately being the national sport um and I think unlike cricket everybody and that again that's not disparaging to cricket but unlike cricket everybody's town has a football team if you see what I mean or there's something there is some team that you can identify with for me it was Bromley because I grew up in Bromley but I could easily have chosen Charlton Crystal Palace Millwall they were all close enough for me to have chosen them further afield I could have gone to any of the London teams Arsenal Chelsea Tottenham whatever it might be and I think football is just unique in that it allows you to be even more kind of parochial about I'm from Bromley and this is my team if you see what I mean. Yeah exactly and Bromley is why I ultimately support Kent because and whilst there might be Kent people who say Bromley's not in Kent historically Bromley was in Kent so um so and because I went to school in Kent for me I just took that football kind of fandom over to cricket.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

So it's like well I'm from Kent so therefore Ergo that must be the county team I must support but that's a bit harder to tap into than just going I grew up here and therefore this is my team if if that follows yeah yeah absolutely I think you sum that up perfectly but um so for our listeners at home every week on the podcast we have a new guest and they like to talk about their career and and give advice to our listeners so for anyone running uh back at home you you're kind of living the dream right you know you're following curriculum football uh for a living what advice would you give for them then if if anyone wants to get into working whether that be in commentary podcasting writing education I guess like anything that they can do from home or they can start doing now to put them in a position to to be well placed to do a career such as yours find your niche is what I would say find your niche unfortunately we we live in a world now where everything is so accessible um YouTube is king podcasts are king and I'm sure it will change um at some point in the future but within all that there are still niche interests and I think I when I look back on what I've done over the last I don't know eight is it eight no about six years I'd say last six years all I've really done is double down on my niche it would be easy for example for me to just generally talk about football but everyone's doing that so there's there's no point in me being just another voice talking about football what I'll do is is I'll double down on the one thing that I know inside out which is uh Bromley Football Club it's not too dissimilar to to to you and Churchy with the with the rate like you're doubling down on what you know inside out right and we I'm I have a very strong belief uh you and I uh both know Sam and you've I'm sure we're but uh I have a very strong belief that we are going full circle back to a time where people just want to hear from people who know their niche inside out if if you see what I mean which is how it always used to be right I so when I was a youngster I wanted to read the local newspaper because it covered Bromley and I could find out from that paper what the gaffer was saying how the match how the match if I hadn't been there how the match was right and I didn't have to click on 19 million adverts to be able to do it right um so I think we're going full circle to people being like no I just want

SPEAKER_04 44:00

To know about this, like I don't want to click through um I'm am I a robot? No, I just want to I just want to know about my team. How did my team do? So um so I think I think I would say to people, it's been a long hard grind for me, but it the reward has been that on the other side of it, people now look at me and go, this guy knows what if I want to know about Bromley, I have to go to that guy because his body of work over time shows me that if he's talking whatever he's talking, he knows exactly what he's talking about. Yeah, yeah. And similarly with West Indies cricket, putting in that grime for five years of just covering West Indies cricket through the podcast, writing articles, appearing on other people's podcasts, it's got to a point where people are like, actually, this guy knows what he's talking about. Um, and I've always liked because sometimes here's a perfect example. Someone said to me once, how come you don't cover the IPL on your podcast? And I said, Because I don't know anything about the IPL. Like I said, I I said, if you want IPL specialists, they're they're out there, go speak to them. Yeah, playing it. But unless it's something specific to how this affects West Indies cricket, why would you come to me? Like, I can't I can't talk on that. And yes, has that potentially cost me some extra eyes when when it's ever whenever it's we're in the middle of IPL season right now, I've not said one word about the IPL on any of my platforms at any point in time because I don't watch it right, and I'm not a specialist in it, but I do know that the West Indies Championship is going on. So when people want to know about the West Indies Championship, they come to you. So you see what I mean? So you just gotta stay uh anyone listening, find your mission and stay true to it. Um if it doesn't if it doesn't grow to what you want it to become, at least it can be your labour of love and your passion. That's that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Amazing. Well, I can thank you so much for your time. I know you're very busy, man, and congratulations on pretty incredible career in education, and good luck with with the rest of what you're doing and looking forward to following the the podcast and and everything else. Thanks very much. No problem, Hector.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

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SPEAKER_01 47:02

Create your own heritage. So there are our friends at Newbery Cricket, and now it is competition time, and thanks to our friends at Newbury Cricket, we have an SPS bat to give away. Chad, your thoughts.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Well we we do, and I've jumped in there because it is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful piece of willow. Last week I told you about my dream, didn't I? Where I was opening the batting for England and my first ball. I didn't really play terribly well, but due to my SPS it still flew to the boundary. I had another dream about the SPS this week. Hector, I'm not going to tell you all of it because I I went to bed with the SPS. Took it to bed with me. Yeah, took it to bed with me. Took it to bed with me. I didn't want anybody else getting their hands on an SPS. So I took it to bed with me. Yeah, lovely. Lovely evening. It really was. So last week's question, everybody, I'm at Headingley. And the question was a couple of weeks ago in the game between Somerset and Yorkshire, what milestone did Joe Root reach? And the answer was Hector. Hundredth first class wicket. He nearly took his hundredth first class wicket. So anybody who emailed in or tweeted in with the right answer, your name has gone in the hat. So this week's question. As I said at the top of this podcast, which is a trendy way of saying at the start of this podcast, Liam Dawson has called time on his first class career. So this week's question simply is how many first class wickets did Liam Dawson take? If you think you know the answer, email sundayservice.pod at yahoo.com or tweet at Sundayservice22. And our friends at Newbury have released an official Sunday service discount code. You can now use the discount code Sundayservice15 and get 15% off goods at www.newbery.co.uk, excluding bespoke bats. So why not treat yourself to some premium gear and quality willow?

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Right, that is stumps for this episode of the Sunday service with Church and Vickers. We will be back together next Sunday, May the 25th. So get that date into your download, diary. Don't forget, you can send us your answers to the quiz and what cricket sound is this. And you can still get anything you want to off your chest cricketwise by emailing sundayservice.pod at yahoo.com or tweeting at Sundayservice22.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

So thank you very much for listening. If you've liked what you've heard, please rate and review us as it really helps others find the podcast because, as I always say, we want us all to join together and be one big happy cricketing family. Thank you once again to Macau for joining us today and chatting to Hector about his brilliant, brilliant podcast. And of course, thank you to all our friends at Newbury Cricket for all their support and their magnificent competition prize, the SPS bat, which I took to bed in my dream. It is, I can assure you, a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful piece of willow.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Until next Sunday from London and Leeds, this has been the Hector Vickers and Mark Church production. Have a magnificent cricketing week, everybody, and remember, the T20 is coming like a marauding bison across the plains of the Serengeti.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Which actually means it starts next week. Goodbye, everybody.