The Sunday Service

Episode 38: Is That Middle Please?

• Hector and Mark

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0:00 | 41:43

Welcome back to The Sunday Service!

This week, we meet our newest member of the parish, Mr Gompertz, and we hear about his first few days as he settles into his new surroundings.

Elsewhere, Mr Church has his bush trimmed into the shape of Sir Geoffrey, although this causes some unforeseen issues...

We also hear our newest feature of the Service, 'Cricket in Three with WG', thanks to WG Rumblepants.

And we also hear Churchy speak to Chris Coleman, Director of
Cricket Participation at the Surrey Foundation. They work with schools, clubs,
charities and governing bodies to increase participation in the sport amongst all demographics. This includes introducing people to cricket, offering a range of coaching and finding suitable clubs.

And finally, our good friends at Newberry Cricket have another terrific competition, this week giving away their brand new 360 cricket shoes.

Check out all of their top equipment here

To enter, just answer the question correctly and send it in to:

- sundayservicecricket@gmail.com

- Twitter / X - sundayservice22

SPEAKER_02

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Sunday service. I'm Mr. Gomperts, having taken over in the parish from young Mr. Vickers. I'm still settling into the parish, having moved into the humble abode of Mr. Vickers, which he'd recently vacated. I must say, he must have left in a bit of a hurry, as he seems to have left some of his possessions behind. In the kitchen, there was a cheese and pickle sandwich, but I'm saving that for this weekend's outing. In the living room, his cassock was hanging on the back of the door, fitted with his name tape on the inside collar. And in the bedroom, on his bedside table, an edition of the good book. Albeit I think this may be property of the house itself. Either way, it has made some very comforting bedtime reading, and it has sent me off to sleep with thoughts of cover drives and orange cordial. And when rifting through the drawers to find a speech I'd misplaced, I came across the cricketing journal of young Mr. Vickers. But to read out his private thought to a public audience would be condemned. So I will return it to him and claim my reward with a pint of the local lager. I look forward to meeting you all properly over the coming weeks and discussing any cricketing tales that may occur. I am, of course, joined by the old man who hasn't gone anywhere. Mainly because he isn't really capable of moving that quickly. Churchy, how are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I am delightful. Thank you, young Mr. Gomperts, and I am delighted to officially welcome you to the parish. As you said, you are meeting everybody, and you will find everybody is lovely, and we're all delighted to have you with us. I know you're going to take us into a new era, and I am hoping that you, yes, you will appeal to our younger audience. And if you can fix the motorways of England by next week, I would be extremely grateful.

SPEAKER_02

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sunday service. Oh yes, we're back, and it's been yet another busy cricketing week. I spent Sunday in the village hall getting to know everybody as Australia beat England in the World T-20 final. And you have to say, through gritted teeth, those Aussies are very good at cricket. I was with Mr. Church on Wednesday as we left the parish to battle the heat of the big city. We headed to Ovalshire for a T-20 Blast doubleheader. And after today's service, we're heading back to the Ovalshire for the final group games, which could well decide if there is a trip to finals day for us. Oh yes, I've been putting together my first musical interpretation for the choir. But more about that in the sermon to come.

SPEAKER_03

How has your week been, Churchy? Well, as always, busy. I stayed up until two o'clock on Monday morning to watch the England Association football team take on Mexico in the good parish of Azteca. I then promptly fell asleep as the game kicked off, but I'm hoping we have all awoken this morning to Norway having been seen off in the nicest possible way. As you say, there have been trips to the Ovalshire, Canterbury Shire, and this afternoon we go back to the Ovalshire as the Twee twenty reaches the business end of the group stage. I have taken on the motorways of England, which are a disaster, and I have introduced you to the parishioners and showed you the sights of the parish. And by the way, the ladies of the Women's Institute think you are, and I quote, a lovely young man. Anyway, what is on today's show, please?

SPEAKER_02

Well, church has his usual cricketing sermon in which he's going to talk about a slight crisis that was diverted in the parish.

SPEAKER_03

We have a new feature in which the great WG Rumblepants looks at the world of cricket this week, and it is called Cricket in Three with WG. And can I just say I thought of that, and I am I am very happy with it.

SPEAKER_02

And as you should.

SPEAKER_03

You know it's going to be a good segment when it rhymes. Well, there was only one thing that really rhymed with WG, and that was three, so I had to work it work it round that.

SPEAKER_02

And our guest this week is the man who runs the Surrey Cricket Foundation and also has the same name as one of Churchy's favourite footballers.

SPEAKER_03

He certainly does, although I don't think he's from Wales. He might be, and he certainly didn't play for Fulham. Well Crystal Palace.

SPEAKER_02

Well I saw this week's guest, I did just have to do a quick Google to make sure there was a cricketing one as well.

SPEAKER_03

If it was that guest who played for Wales, Crystal Palace, and Fulham. I don't know whether he likes cricket or not. Well, that that was my next question. But well maybe he'll come on one day. But we have the other one of those with the same name. He didn't play for Crystal Palace, Fulham, um, uh, and Wales and manage Wales. And thanks to our friends at Newbury Cricket, we have our competition where you can win another piece of their magnificent cricketing equipment. And don't forget you can get in touch with us, just email sundayservicepodcast at gmail.com or tweet at Sundayservice22.

SPEAKER_02

There's lots to get through there, Mr. Church. Let's get started with the Sunday Service.

SPEAKER_03

It has been a busy and momentous week in the parish. As you've already heard, young Mr. Gomperts arrived last Sunday lunchtime and joined us in the village hall to watch the final of the Women's World T20. It was a tremendous occasion and an ideal opportunity for Mr. Gomperts to meet many of the parishioners. The ladies of the WI immediately seem to have moved on from young Mr. Vickers as soon as they met young Mr. Gomperts. The only way I can describe it is mass hysteria, and I fear he may have missed much of the inland innings as he was surrounded and virtually pinned to the wall by the likes of Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Bartholomew. I managed to extract him at half time and he sat quietly with me as Australia glided to victory, but I have to say he did look a little shell-shocked having met the WI, and I did tell him that is what Virat Cody feels like playing in the IPL. I walked Mr. Gompertz back to Graveney Cottage after the final so he could unpack and settle in. I then popped my head into the badger's googly to be greeted by Ted the Landlord sporting a sombrero with a multicolour blanket over his shoulders, holding a taco in each hand and shouting Ai, aye, aíba in my face. Yes, Ted was having a Mexican night because of the football, and the thought of the WI on tequila sent me back to Boycott Vicarage. I awoke Monday morning to see that England had won in the Aztec of 3-2, and after breakfast there was a knock at the Vicarage door. It was Mr Knowles, the opening batter from the Gardeners of Great Kneebend, who the Parish 11 had lost to last week. Now he had been as good as his word and told me he'd come to trim my bush in the shape of Sir Geoffrey Boycott. I left him clipping away and picked up young Mr Gomperts, who told me young Mr Vickers had left a number of his items behind, including his jockstrap with the face of Archbishop Coney on the front. This was news to me, and I told him we would forward the jock strap and other possessions to young Mr Vickers. We went back to Boycott Vicarage and I am pleased to say young Mr Gomperts has some excellent ideas for the parish. I was particularly taken with his windsurfing lessons on the parish pond, and I looked forward to watching his first class. We then walked back to the Badgers Googly where Ted was still in sombrero and he gave us a beautiful rendition of Hey Jude. Mr Gombert and I then took a stroll through the parish and parishioners came out to greet our new member of the clergy. All was going very well until we got to Mrs. Watts's to discover her and Mrs. Bartholomew sunbathing in the front garden. Let me just say, what they were wearing was appropriate for getting a tan, but not appropriate for greeting young Mr. Gomperts. The floral two-piece is marvellous for the beach, but not for the WI. I did have a quiet word, and after donning their summer dresses, peace and calm was restored, although once again young Mr Gomperts looked a little shell-shocked. I returned to Boycott Vidrige mid-afternoon to find an audience outside looking at my bush. Mr Knowles had been as good as his word again and had toperied the bush into a depiction of Sir Geoffrey playing a straight drive. Unfortunately, Sir Geoffrey's bat was at an angle that was causing giggling, and all I can say is he looked very excited and happy with his shot from a certain angle, and that angle being the front pathway to the Vicarage. Thank you to Mr Knowles, but I might let the bush grow out. Tuesday I spent on the motorways of England, leaving Mr Gomperts to settle in on his own. I returned in the evening, and he told me he'd had a splendid day and had started the choir in his musical reworking of Pulp Fiction, which you will be hearing in a few moments' time. I then took him to the Badgers Googly for a pint of the local brew, where he met members of the Parish Eleven who have the weekend off. Ted greeted us dressed in full Viking outfit and said he was getting ready for Norway on Saturday night. Now there's a small part of me that is terrified England make the final against France, and we will all have to put up with Ted's Gallic interpretation. Wednesday I was at the Oval Shire for the latest T20 Doubleheader, where I witnessed a young player called Jason Roy make a marvellous hundred. He has a big future ahead of him. And Thursday was another day on the motorways of England. Incidentally, I am finding I need divine inspiration to get anywhere on the motorways of England, and the diversions are more confusing than the first time Sackflame bowled the Deudra. Friday meant a trip to Canterbury Shire for Surreyshire's latest group game against the Men of the Garden of England, or Le Jardin de Longlays, as they say in France. I returned in the early hours of Saturday morning and then had a quiet day with no game for the parish 11. With time on their hands, the eleven had dressed as the England football team, and Sexi Rex's Jordan Pickford was a sight to behold. I avoided Ted's Norway night in the Badgers Googly, and I have noticed that numbers are down in the congregation this morning, so I take it it must have been a roaring success. Now there will be some of you who don't know the result of the football, so I'm not going to reveal it here. Suffice to say I would be surprised if there was a moment that mirrored Sexy Rex apparently trying to save a wedge-free kick at 9pm last night, where he dived to his left and ended up diving straight into the parish pond. In a moment, the choir will sing Mr Gompert's musical interpretation of Pulp Fiction, which I am very much looking forward to, and I have one parish notice. For all of those who've asked me to do a Donald and get their various parking fines overturned, I'm afraid that won't be possible. So enjoy the heat wave this week and have a good cricketing week. And may I finish with the words of the great Bruce Forsythe Life is the name of the game and I want to play that game with you. Until next week, bat well everyone. Bat very, very well, and you can see that.

SPEAKER_02

Churchy, please explain.

SPEAKER_03

Well, as we all know, the great WG Rumblepants is very much part of the parish, so I felt it was about time we gave him a regular feature where he could unleash his cricketing thoughts upon the world. We all know him so well from his magnificent social media escapades. But ladies and gentlemen, here is the man himself. Yes, for the first time, here is Cricket in Three with WG.

SPEAKER_01

Hello everyone. Just Rumble here. And welcome to Cricket in Three with WG. Churchy, thank you so much for having me back on the pod, and I promise not to tell everyone what you were doing in that nightclub with Mrs. Bartholomew. My first cricket in three today is Tit Freeman, the greatest wicket taker you've probably never heard of. If you enjoy Cricket's wonderful statistical oddities, then allow me to introduce you to perhaps the greatest county bowler of them all, Tit Freeman. Standing barely five foot two inches tall, Freeman looked an unlikely destroyer of batting line-ups, but appearances were deceptive. Playing almost exclusively for Kent County Cricket Club between the wars, he produced bowling figures that still seem almost impossible. Seventeen times he took a hundred wickets in a season, and in each of eight consecutive seasons, 1928 to 1935, he took over 200 wickets. His total aggregate in this period was 2,090 wickets. He's the only bowler in history to capture 300 wickets a season, dismissing the phenomenal number of 304 batsmen and 18.05 each in the dry summer of 1928. No other bowler has taken three times all ten wickets in a first-class innings, and no other bowler has twice taken seventeen wickets in a championship map. Across his career, Freeman finished with more than 3,700 first-class wickets, while his remarkable leg spin, mixed with a deceptive googly, proved irresistible on uncovered pitches. Batsman often knew exactly what was coming, but still couldn't stop it. His international career with England was surprisingly modest, just a dozen test matches, largely because selectors felt his style was less effective on flatter overseas pitches. But in county cricket, he was simply relentless. In an era blessed with legendary bowlers, Freeman's records remain amongst the most extraordinary the game has ever seen. And nearly a century later, some of them still look untouchable. But hardly anyone in the modern game has ever heard of him. Which just goes to show how fleeting fame can be in cricket, even for exceptional players. My number two this week is why Sam Curran could end up replacing Ben Stokes in England's test side. And that's gotta be one of the toughest jobs in world cricket at the moment. You're not simply replacing runs of wickets, you're trying to replace intensity and one of England's greatest match winners. If England are looking for someone who can potentially restore the balance of the side, then Sam Curran is an intriguing option. While I'm not wholly convinced he's the right option, he does deserve some consideration. We have to be honest though, he hasn't played death cricket since 2021, but on the flip side, he's only 28 years old, and he's continued to develop his skills. He's a left armor, immediately giving England a different angle of attack, and if the juke ball swings, that could be useful. With the bat he's shown throughout his career, he's not just a tailender, he can counterattack, and he makes things happen. England have always valued cricket as capable of contributing in both disciplines, and Curran fits the mould, but is not Ben Stokes. Then who is? Perhaps most importantly, he understands pressure and he does have captaincy experience. There are questions though. Can he rediscover the consistency needed in first class cricket? Is he quick enough to succeed on flatter pitches? They're legitimate concerns, and many observers feel that he needs more Red Bull cricket before earning another opportunity. And finally this week, my number three, the Joys of the Cricket Club Barbecue. Now no English cricket club is complete without the post-match barbecue. It's a remarkable institution where the opening batter who couldn't middle one all afternoon suddenly becomes convinced he's Gordon Ramsay. The burgers are either still mooing or have the consistency of an old trigger ball. The onions have been forgotten until someone smells smoke, and there's always one sausage that's been turning on the grill since the toss. But somehow it tastes magnificent. Perhaps it's because you spend six hours in the field, perhaps it's the pint in your hand, or perhaps it's simply because club cricket has always been about far more than the result. Win, lose, or get bold for 38. Everyone gathers around the barbecue. And that's often where the best stories of the day are cooked up. And that's my greeting three with WG this week.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you to WG, and he will be back next week with three more cricketing thoughts.

SPEAKER_03

And now it's time for our cricketing guest. The Surrey Cricket Foundation is the charitable body charged with the delivery of recreational cricket in Surrey and an integral part of Surrey County Cricket Club. They work with schools, clubs, charities, and governing bodies to increase participation in the sport amongst all demographics. This includes introducing people to cricket, offering a range of coaching and finding suitable clubs. They also work to provide the infrastructure required to allow the game to thrive, including funding new facilities and training new coaches and umpires. Now, Chris Coleman is the director of cricket participation at the foundation, and he joined us on Wednesday, and I started with the usual hard-hitting question. How are you, Chris? Yeah, I'm very well today. How are you, Chi? Yes, very well. Thank you very much for bringing over a bottle of water, because it is baking here today, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04

I have my knees out today, but it's a beautiful day for cricket. We're going to see two um T20 games here at the Oval, so it should be should be good.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. Now, sir, it i is it the first question, proper question. Just explain in brief terms what the Surrey Cricket Foundation is all about.

SPEAKER_04

So the Surrey Cricket Foundation is the charitable arm of Surrey County Cricket Club. We look after all recreational cricket within South London and Surrey. Um essentially our role is all about making more happen. So more games of cricket, more places to play games, more inclusion to make sure the game's open to everyone, and more opportunities to change lives. So using the game of cricket to improve people away from the game.

SPEAKER_03

So how'd you go about that?

SPEAKER_04

Well, we have a really broad remit. So we look after everything from uh coaching and schools, which we do in partnership with Charts to Shine. We then try and transition kids into national programs, so All Stars and Dynamos. Have you ever seen boys and girls wandering around with a blue backpack? That's all stars. And then from there you enter the Surrey Junior Cricket Championship, which is the biggest single junior league structure in the country. About eighteen hundred junior teams. Um and then from there our recently merged uh adult league structure, so the MZ Co. Surrey Cricket Championship, which was the merger of our three biggest leagues coming together. Um Look after all uh adult cricket, so that's men's and women's, and then boys and girls take part in the Surrey Junior Cricket Championship. And alongside that, we uh train all volunteers, coaches, ground staff, um, and then have a whole disability program from top to bottom, all the way from schools coaching to the elite Surrey D40 side who often play a game here at the Ke Oval. Um, and then we do lots of inclusion work around that. So we do we um run schools competitions, so they were all the finals of our schools competitions were all last week, and we partner with the pathway who come down and talent spot state school kids um and hopefully transition them onto the pathway.

SPEAKER_03

It's a huge undertaking. Just give everybody an idea of how many people you've got working in the foundation, and obviously everyone's got different areas of expertise, but but as I say, it's a massive undertaking.

SPEAKER_04

It is. So we've got 38 staff as of uh as of today. We split into kind of four departments. We have a schools department, uh programmes and marketing who look after some of our program work in women and girls and disability, but also do a lot of business development and fundraising, which is a really key part of what we do. Um we've got a clubs, leagues, and workforce team who do kind of that traditional cricket aspect of it, and then we've got a communities team who do a lot of our community-based programmes all across South London.

SPEAKER_03

Let's let's look at the school side to things. So, how do you because I've been here a long, long time, so I I know that there's always been sort of an association with schools. But how do you sort of get into the schools? How how do you you get in there and show the kids that cricket is something that they can do and and it's enjoyable and it's fun? How how do you go about that process?

SPEAKER_04

So we uh get funded by a ch another cricket charity called Chance to Shine, which has been running for about 20 years to work all across primary schools within um South London, so the seven South London boroughs, then all of what traditionally you're called Surrey. And then we strategically choose the schools that we go into based on where we have um uh you know outputs from those schools. So we might have a street session, um, we might have a club who's looking to set up a new All-Stars or dynamos or a new junior team or a new girl section. So we uh target specific schools based on what we're trying to achieve, and then we have two coordinators who work all across the patch, um reading schools, emailing schools, building relationships, and then and then on the flip side we have lots of schools write to us and say, We'd like to put on some cricket. Can you help?

SPEAKER_03

Because we had schools day here last championship game, wasn't it? And uh unfortunately the weather wasn't great, so I did see you running around keeping them entertained. And I I can I be honest, I was delighted when the cricket actually did break out for them because at one point I was thinking they might start taking the stand down in a minute or something along those lines. But that is a fantastic day. Give us an idea because how many kids did we have in that day? And they were having a brilliant time. And I always love it when the umpires walk out because it's like a One Direction concert, and they they're getting players on the boundary who they've got no idea who the player is, but they want their autograph. But but that's a huge day, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it is. It's a real showpiece day for us as a foundation. We had about 4,000 kids turn up on a day where it pretty much rained for four hours. We put on lots of entertainment away from the pitch to keep them into everything from obviously cricket activity, but but dance and Vauxhall City Farm come down with the animals and face painting and all that kind of stuff. Um, but it's a great honestly, the kids are just amazed to come and see the absolute scale of the Kier Oval and come to an international sports ground. And it's great. We've done two really big ones the last couple of years. Last year we had about 6,000 kids here, it was 37 degrees, and this year it rained for four hours. So I'm hoping it's somewhere in the middle for next year's uh event.

SPEAKER_03

I I always think with this that it's not just about the getting the obviously getting kids playing is hugely important, but it's also showing them that cricket is a great, a great game, and there's so many different roles in cricket as well. And the other thing that interests me with what what you do is you said you've got the coaches program there as well. So you go out to coaches and coach the coaches, don't you? So it's it's it's a really interesting way of doing things that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so if you look at a community club, the vast majority are run by dads like me and and mums and dads. And in order to do that, you need to go through a coaching course and a coaching programme, and there's all different levels from you know entry foundation level to Gareth Batti. Um, and we run all of those training courses. So we have 38 staff, there is a thousand times that working across working across cricket, and that they're the real driving force behind growing the game and making clubs inc inclusive and keeping kids coming back on a Friday night at a cricket clubs all across the county.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and and I think it's great because you often look, and I remember when I was younger, and it was it was just dads who were coaching, and it's great, you know, they they love it, but but i it's important that they have a really good idea of what what what the role is and and and the way of doing it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and it's you know, the bat we talk a lot about getting the balance right between fun and talent development. And at the younger age group, it's fun. You know, my daughter's ten and she wants to enjoy the session she turns up in, she wants to you know have fun with her friends, but she wants to get better. Yeah, you know, she wants to work on the bowling action and work out how she can take more wickets and hit more sixes, and so getting the balance right between that, and then we support coaches in those roles to yeah, help them essentially run better sessions.

SPEAKER_03

I I suppose for you as well. Now I want to mention Josh Blake to you because obviously Blake he was on the with foundation and he was coaching, and now obviously he's playing for the first team. How how big a thing is that? Because I know that's not the the sort of archetypal thing that you you you you go into schools and you find a kid, and that kid goes through the age groups, and all of a sudden that kid's walking outside with the batting for Surrey, but still to have Josh who was coaching on the Surrey Cricket Foundation, and suddenly he's out there playing for Surrey against Yorkshire last year, making 70 odd at Scarborough crucial innings. Uh that that that was fantastic, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04

It's very cool. Josh is just a super cool dude, and what funny story actually, he was working for us. Um Jamie Smith, pre-England days, got picked up for the hundred. Stewie needed a wicket keeper, so he rung me up and asked if we could borrow Josh, and then Josh got some runs, and then he asked to borrow him again and borrow him again and borrow him again. And then Josh resigned on that balcony across the way um on the Friday, and the following Friday he wrung me up and told me that Stewie tapped him on the shoulder and offered him a contract. But it's look, it's great. It's we are about talent development and players, you know, getting the opportunity to become the best players they can be, regardless of their background and ethnicity and gender and the like. So, and obviously the the programmes that are on our high-level private schools are amazing, but we run programs like the MCC Foundation hubs, which takes state school talented cricketers who are just below the pathway level in order to help them be the best that they can. So I was probably well, I I know exactly how good I was to play a bit of Surrey under 15s and not beyond, but I was given the best chance I possibly could, and that's what we're about.

SPEAKER_03

Can we talk about you? Because I'm always fascinated by how people sort of end up doing the jobs they do. So let's start with that. So obviously, cricket was a massive part of your life when you were a youngster.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I there's a still a picture on my parents' mantelpiece of me holding a cricket bat from b before I remember a very terrible county bat. Um, and then I played cricket um all my junior days and then um went to university, ended up playing a lot of hockey actually in in South London, um and and then had a job in data cabling out of university, it was quite boring. Right. Went travelling, England uh London got the Olympics, and I declared whilst in a news agency in New Zealand that I was going to get a job in sport. And then I worked for sport, I kind of found a job in Sport England and then was there for about 12 years. Sport England kind of works in two areas. We have a grants making side and a uh kind of relationship management side where we put investment into organisations like the ECB and the FA and the RFU and then and then national partners as well. So I worked six years running grants programs, um, giving money out to cricket clubs and rowing clubs and everything else, and then six years in relationship management, and I for the last three and a half years of that I managed all the Sport England investment, so government and lottery investment into the ECB, Charles Sharon and the Lord Taverners. And then uh from there I moved to be the community cricket director down at Sussex under Rob Andrew, and then I spent about two and a half years down there, and then the surrey job came up.

SPEAKER_03

Was it always a thought process?

SPEAKER_04

Could I could I end up just just working in cricket? I've always been driven by doing something that I enjoy. So getting a job in a sport that I love, that I used to, you know, I can look out the window and see where I used to hang over and get you know Stewie's autograph and Monty Lynch's autograph and all the all the rest from that day. Um it's something I'm really passionate about, and I think it's really important that my view is you either do two things with your job, you do something that you love or you might as well just go and earn as much money as possible. So um and to do something I love is is really Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_03

It's great, it gets me out of bed in the morning. And how much as well, because you said there were those two roles uh when you were at Sport England, and I would have thought those are two two massive things that you're doing now at the Surrey Cricket Foundation as well. So it sounds as if it set you up perfectly for coming into the job that you do now.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, correct. So um I think uh Gamekeeper turned poacher was was the line I used, I think, in the job interview. So um we do a lot of work around, you know, sourcing grant funding in order to run programs and relationship management. You know, I I used to give money to the organ to organisations, and now I get money from those said organizations. So it's a lot of the same um, it was a lot of the same people, obviously there's been a bit of transition, but um you learn a lot about sports, you learn about how that kind of ecosystem of funding works, and obviously it's really important. And we've grown a lot since so I joined in the middle of COVID, which was an interesting experience. Um and then we had about 16 staff then, and now obviously we've got 38 and we're turning over um between two and two and a half million pounds a year, so we've we've grown a lot.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I suppose it's also letting kids know that enjoy it first because not everybody is a Suravanchi and not everybody's gonna go on the franchise circuit, but that but that is that's there now, isn't it? That that there is riches to be made from playing cricket.

SPEAKER_04

Male and female. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, that's what's changed. In my day, uh, if there was a girl at the cricket club when I was thirteen, it was someone's sister. Yeah. Now, I mean, we've got three north of three hundred and forty teams, girls' teams within Surrey, which is great, and it's an absolute norm that cricket clubs now have um girl sections and bo and boys' sections. Very, very, very few people do that. So it's about what you get out of it, the achievement that you know. I always say I've learnt more on the sports field that I use in day-to-day work than I've learnt in the classroom, because it's all about you know, leading a team and motivating a team and dealing with failure, you know, almost every batting innings ends in failure. Yeah, it does. So um, and being able to, you know, have the diligence to understand that when you need to be there at twelve o'clock for a meet, you turn up at twelve o'clock. Because they're the they're the life skills that you learn by playing sport almost accidentally, if you know what I mean, um, that you take into the workplace and it gives you experience. And you know, we run a young volunteering program, and when people are coming into jobs, that's the sort of thing you look for. Who's who's getting up, who's helping out their community, who's you know, got a bit of get up and go that you think yeah, you'd be a good asset to our organisation.

SPEAKER_03

If anybody listening to this, and I always ask this question, anybody listening who's listening to you and thinking, yeah, cool. Actually, do you know what? That sounds exactly like something I would like to do. But I always ask every sort of guest, uh, one bit of advice to anybody trying to and and the impression I get from you is give it a right old go and get yourself involved in everything.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I mean, we employ people from all kinds of places. So uh we've employed someone from the post office, from um someone who used to be a diplomat in Tajikistan, people who have uh a guy we employed who was the ex-ops director at IG, who took a pretty significant uh pay cut to come over. But people just want to work in something they're passionate about, and I think that's really important if it is specifically cricket that you're passionate about, get involved in your local cricket club, um, do some coaching, get an understanding of the game because the one probably common denominator we've got across the business is that everyone's got that real passion for cricket, and that's something that you know we're not gonna make you a millionaire coming to work here, but you do get some pretty incredible perks and an incredible kind of sense of fulfillment through making a difference through the sport that we all love.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for sparing a bit of time today and your very busy schedule, and also thank you very much for bringing the water up that should keep us going. But Chris, it's been an absolute joy, thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, pleasure, thank you, Churchy. I really appreciate it. And if you do want to get involved, all the uh or support the work we do, all the information's on our website. And um, we have lots we can get involved from donating a five or a five a month to our prize draw all the way up to our patrons clubs, and we've got corporate sponsors. But please do reach out to me. My uh details are all on the website if you do want to get involved. Um we'd love to have you help us make a difference in in the sport we all love all across the all across the country.

SPEAKER_02

We have some friends representing Newbury.

SPEAKER_03

We certainly do. They're very good friends of ours at Newbury Cricket, and they always very kindly give us a wonderful, wonderful piece of cricketing equipment to give away.

SPEAKER_02

This week they're giving away a brand new cricket bag.

SPEAKER_03

They might be, although it could be something else.

SPEAKER_02

This week they're giving away a brand new pair of batting gloves.

SPEAKER_03

Could be that, although again it could be something else.

SPEAKER_02

This week they're giving away a brand new pair of batting pads.

SPEAKER_03

Could be that as well, but then again it could be something else.

SPEAKER_02

So this week they're giving away a brand new pair of wicket keeping gloves. They might be.

SPEAKER_03

Although it could be something else.

SPEAKER_00

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SPEAKER_03

So here is this week's question, and I'm also going to explain what that conversation was between Mr. Gomberts and I about what the prize might be from our good friends at Newbury Cricket. Although if you've been listening very closely, you've just heard the advert from our good friend at Newbury Cricket, and that might well have given you a clue. So, the question this week: Pakistan arrives soon for the Test Match series against England. We have no idea, absolutely no idea, who will be captaining England, but Pakistan do have a new test match captain. My question this week who is Pakistan's new test match captain? If you think you know the answer, just email SundayserviceCricket at gmail.com or tweet at Sundayservice22. And now to explain that conversation between Mr. Gumberts and I about what that prize might be. We were trying to add some mystery to proceedings, and that is why that conversation between Mr. Gumberts and I bounced back and forth, which I think probably did. Add an air of mystery to what the prize might be. But as I just said, if you were listening carefully, you would have heard the Newbury advert beforehand. We always knew what the prize was, but we wanted to add some mystery. So the prize, obviously, from our good friends at Newbury Cricket, is a pair of their wonderful 360 cricket shoes. And if you're lucky enough to win, you will get to choose the size of the old cricket shoes, which obviously is very important, and you will also get to choose, thanks to our friends at Newbury Cricket, whether you want a bite or pimples. 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.newberry.co.uk, excluding bespoke bats. So why not treat yourself to some premium gear and quality willow.

SPEAKER_02

Right, well, the bales have been removed from the grooves, and that is stumps for this episode of the Sunday service.

SPEAKER_03

So thank you for listening. If you've liked what you've heard, please rate and review it as it really helps others find the podcast because we want us all to join together and be one big happy cricketing family. Thank you to WG Rumblepants and of course Chris Coleman, and thank you to our friends at Newbury Cricket for all their support and their magnificent competition prize.

SPEAKER_02

Until next Sunday, from an almost unbearably hot and humid London. Have a magnificent cricketing week, everybody. And remember, if the pitch is flat, score plenty of runs with your bat.

SPEAKER_03

Wise, wise words. Goodbye.