Sunday Service Sermon Special

If we cast our minds back to the 24th of October, 2025, some of our most devoted listeners will remember a certain Church sermon that graced the airwaves.

The sermon itself came as the clocks were preparing to tick back - the cricket season was done and dusted, and it was time to hunker down for the winter.

Referring to 'the good book', Mark Church began a weekly sermon from the cricketing pulpit that has since been an ever present on the Sunday Service with Church and Vickers.

As a special episode, the Parish is treated to the first three sermons to ever reach the pulpit. 

We hope you enjoy.

As ever, a 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 special 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_02 0:00

Hello everyone at the Sunday Service Parish. I hope your cricketing week is going swimmingly. Now you may already be thinking, where is Mr. Church? Why is he not at the pulpit? But do not forget for this episode is an absolute highlight reel of the great man. Working title is the Sunday Service Sermon Special. I think it's nice and simple. It's got a nice bit of alliteration and it does exactly what it says on the tin. If I can cast your minds back to the 24th of October, 2025, you may remember the opening church sermon which graced the airwaves at the Sunday Service Parish where Mark Church introduced the good book to our listeners. 32 weeks later, and here we are with a wealth of knowledge, humour, and cricketing escapism that has permeated throughout the parish and beyond. So I thought with a bit more time afforded due to the T20s, that as a special episode, we could take the time to listen to the first three sermons that preach the parish. And if you haven't already, it may also be a good time to revert to these episodes with chats with the great man himself and Surrey's Emma Calvert and the cricketing legend that is Michael Atherton. But that's enough of me. Without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy these three cricketing sermons, courtesy of Mr. Mark Church.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Good morning. If, like me, you were sat in front of the news last night, waiting for the start of match of the day, you would have heard this sombre announcement. And please remember to put your clocks back by an hour when you go to bed. They are the worst words I can hear because it means the end of British summertime and the cricket season has definitely finished. Until Sophie Rayworth or Clive Myrie tells me to put my clocks back, I harbour a secret hope the powers that be, whoever they are this week, will have made a decision to fill October with some more domestic cricket, so we all have something to go and watch. Alas, come four o'clock today, darkness will fall across the land. Dressing rooms and pavilions will be empty, cricket equipment will remain in the cupboards, cheese and pickle sandwiches will stay in the fridge, and our wonderful cricket grounds around this blessed aisle will sit and remember the summer that has been. In my years of covering our magnificent game, I have learned that this is an important time for cricket lovers. A time where we come together and help each other through the long days. Without the sun on our faces and the smell of grass and post-lunch flatulence up our noses. Today, I always like to read from the good book to cheer myself and understand our cricketing concerns that we take into the winter have been felt by others down the years. This morning, I would like to read a passage from the 1980 edition of The Wisden, editor's notes, page 88 entitled The Ball. The rising cost of the cricket ball, in England in 1979, the top grade varies from £16.50 to over £20 each, is causing much concern. In Australia, the Cookaburra ball cost £12. A British Standards Institution team of scientists has been working out a new standard specification of cricket balls, taking into account size, construction, stitching, and the seam of different grades of balls. And it will come to pass that domestic cricketers in this country will be forced to use a cooker borrow rather than a jute, which will have no benefit when we hit Australia and will not turn Watery Foster's lager into wine. I must admit to making that last bit up. But on a serious note, balls. Balls are something I seem to have discussed at length this summer, and back in 1980, balls were causing discussion. So some things never change. And that is reassuring. The cricketing worries of 45 years ago were the same as the ones we take with us into the long winter nights this year. Those worries are natural and give us all something to discuss and moan about over the winter months. And no doubt, as soon as we get the start of the season underway, nothing will have been resolved and a new idea will be introduced, such as using a duke's for the first 20 overs and a cooker burr for the next 40. So bowlers are using both types of ball, and captains are further confused by the changing regulations of what should be such a simple game. So what am I trying to say? I have no idea. But one thing I do know, discussion and opinion on a wonderful game will keep us going throughout the winter. What should be England lineup be for the opening Ashes Test? Will Chris Wokes be sports personality of the year united? Which T10 or T20 franchise league is currently being played? And is the great Benny Howell involved? And if he isn't, why not? Because he should be. When do Club Winternet start? And who will have spent £400 on a new bat that seemingly won't have a middle? And are cheese and pickle sandwiches going to give you more energy for that opening spell than a high protein bar or energy drink? We will all join together as we are this morning, and as we will every Sunday morning, and our thoughts and opinions will keep us going throughout the winter. I would like you to think of us as one big cricketing family taking a car trip to the local zoo. We may get lost on the way. We may have left our wallet at home. One of the children will need the toilet on the motorway. Another of our offspring will have their headphones on and look surly all day. And whoever is driving will wonder why they've bothered. But when we get to the zoo and it's raining and all the animals are hiding, and the coffees and a round of cakes comes to £75, and we then get back to the car to find it has a puncher. Please remember this. We are all together, and whatever our thoughts and opinions, we are all part of the cricketing family, and we will help each other to get through the winter and emerge together on that blessed April morning when the new season dawns. Until next week, have a productive time out in the middle, play your own game, and do not reverse scoop too early.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

The 32nd one coming out tomorrow with the great Elizabeth Ammon to talk through England cricket, both men and women, her fascinating career, and obviously looking ahead to the great T20 World Cup that is on the horizon. But as I should say, this episode is once again brought to you by our friends at Newbury Cricket. We will attach links to their website below. Feel free to check them out for some incredible bats, bulls, gloves, pads, you name it. They've got it all, and it is top, top quality. And of course, we have our weekly competition, monthly competition with questions every week, read out by Mark Church, where you can win this month. It is the SBS cricket bat. The month before is the brilliant limited edition Majorna bat. So yeah, just keep your eyes peeled for those in our regular episodes. But let's get into it. Here is Mark Church with the second ever sermon on the Sunday service.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

The opening session, the opening delivery, the first Sunday in November across the boundary rope, if you will. The significance of that? I'm not sure, other than it is the first time we are all together under our cricketing roof in the month of November, and that really is a lovely thought. November, the month before December. Number 11 in the batting order sat with its feet up in the dressing room drinking coffee, talking rubbish until now, where it's time has come to walk down the pavilion steps and make its way out to the middle, if you will. November, the month of bonfire flames and fireworks, pyrotechnics and woolly hats, huddling together drinking something that warms us all up on a cold evening. Sounds much like a floodlit T20 on a July evening in this country. November, the start of the ashes in Australia and the greatest named team in the history of the game, the garden root badgers getting started in the South African T20. November is a time of year where I like to start reflecting, not in a literal sense with the light bouncing off me like an overweight cat's eye, but in a looking back sense, much like you do when you nick a good one to the keeper. As I get older, I sometimes struggle to keep up with all the changes to our wonderful game, but I must admit, there is one piece of technology that really adds to my cricket watching, and I feel it is something that will play a part in November, December, January, February, actually in all twelve months of the year where one follows the other. What am I talking about? I don't really know, but all I will say to you is Decision Referral System. DRS if you will. Oh it is marvellous. That moment when a batter is pinned in front of all three stumps and the umpire's finger goes straight up. The bowler celebrates whilst the batter walks down to his or her partner to ask what they think. As the clock ticks down, the crowd wait with breath stilled, and then the batter punches their forearm to take the decision upstairs. Then we all wait as the third umpire rocks and rolls, uses Snicko as a cup of tea and books his or her two-week break in Magaloof. Eventually there is no bat involved, so we all go to ball tracking, and would you believe it? The ball is going over the top and the batteries reprieved. It is the most wonderful drama, and even better when the fielding side have used up all their referrals. Let us say in Yorkshire, and let us also say six years ago, and let us also say it's when a left hander sweeps an off spinner with two runs needed for victory, it hits the front pad, it's hitting middle. And imagine if you will, the umpire gives it not out when it's stone dead, but there are no referrals left. And that left hander goes on to hit the winning runs and finish a hundred and thirty-five knot out, with his November at the other end finishing with a magnificent one knot out. For me, reflecting on the year, I must admit the use of DRS in our everyday comings and goings would be a marvellous system to have to hand. For example, at the end of this sermon, when I realised that none of it again makes any sense, and you're all asking Hector to find someone else to present this podcast with. Or when I fill the car up with leaded rather than unleaded petrol, as I did only the other day, I can stand on the garage forecourt, refer again to find there is nothing on SNCCO and the car is filled with the right sort of fuel. But life, like cricket, can sometimes make fools of us, and perhaps it's right that DRS should be left for our beautiful game, and our everyday faux pas should stay with us. In fact, the pressure of using your referrals correctly is something I could do without, so actually I have completely changed my mind. Anyway, November! Here it is, and I am sure it will be a blessed and treasured cricketing month. Until next Sunday, try and attack in the power play, but keep some wickets in the hutch for the week ahead, and may all your googlies be well disguised.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Introducing Newbury Kit Studio, where you create your own heritage. Design bespoke teamware for any club, school or team with thousands of custom combinations at your fingertips. Whether you're building a full custom look or choosing from our core range to suit any budget, your team deserves the best. And because Newbury has been crafting cricket equipment since 1919, Kit Studio customers unlock exclusive discounts across balls, bats, equipment and shoes. Start designing today at Newbury.co.uk. Newbury Kit Studio. Create your own heritage.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

So here we go. Here is the final sermon of this special episode, the Sunday Service Sermon special. And it was, of course, over Remembrance Sunday, so Churchy, with a very poignant sermon here. And this episode was also with the great Michael Afton, as I mentioned earlier on in the show. Feel free to listen to it back. It was good numbers for us. It was very good numbers. It did very well. But without further ado, here is Churchy's sermon. Hope you've enjoyed and see you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Good morning. So here we are all together again under one cricketing roof. Today is of course Remembrance Sunday, and at cricket grounds across the country, the names of those whose service and sacrifice have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life are commemorated. I am here at the Keir Oval, where in the long room there is a framed wooden board with the names of the 48 players and members who lost their lives during the First World War. The inscription reads In Memorium 1914 to 1918 they played the game. This morning I would just like to read the names of all forty-eight C P G Aldridge E. Atwater H. G. Blackley W M Burrell H. P. Catley E. F. Genery. H. B. Genery G. S. Cooper W J H Cohen. W L Dawson. H. M. W G O Gillespie and Hollywood. J. E. Raphael A B Reed. W F Ray F W Roberts. C C Snow C C Snafford. A B Fool C W Tell A S W V P C Whittle I War Mode V C Winter. They all played the game. And we think