The Paddock and The Pavilion - The Horse Racing and Cricket Podcast

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an auctioneer at Tattersalls in Newmarket? In this podcast you will find out. Freddie McKibbin a sales organiser and auctioneer at the famous bloodstock organisation gives an insight into his role, presales, sale day and after sales at Park Paddocks. You will also hear about his love of racing and rugby combined with a dash of school drama. He onc...

Yes, we have guests on today’s show but the star of the how is a racehorse, Stradivarius. The popular chestnut won 20 of his 35 races, 7 at Group 1 level, including 3 Ascot Gold Cups. He retired at the end of the 2022 British flat race season. You will hear from our main guest Joe Bradley, the Head of Bloodstock at the National Stud, Discover Newmarket guide Frankie McGhee, Racing Post bloodstock...

England under 19 International Emma Marlow returns to The Paddock and The Pavilion to review the inaugural Under 19 T20 World Cup in South Africa. Emma who played against Rwanda and Pakistan gives her insight on the momentous tournament from inside the England camp. Joining Emma, Sue Strachan, who is a Scotland Women’s tour manager and Scotland’s under 19 medical liaison officer, John Aaron, the U...

James Hildreth is a Somerset cricketing legend. Third on the all-time list of run scorers for the west country county James joined us to discuss the key moments of his two-decade career. The middle order batsman who scored over 27,000 runs in all formats for the county retired in August 2022 has now moved into financial management. He recently set up Hildreth and in this podcast he talked about wh...

The Netherlands fast bowler Paul Van Meekeren joins the podcast during his time playing in the Bangladesh Premier League for Khulna Tigers to discuss his country’s successful 2022 ICC T20 World Cup campaign where they defeated the mighty South Africa in the Super 12 stage. Paul reveals how in a football loving country he has gone on to become one of his nation’s leading bowlers on the world stage....

Harry Vaheesan, the Director of Cricket and Manager of the Jaffna Kings returns for a third time on the show to celebrate his team’s victory in the 2022 Lanka Premier League. The former coach of Cambridgeshire junior sides and of March Town Cricket Club gives his views on the end of the year tournament which the Kings have now won for the third successive year. Harry reveals how much The Lanka Pre...

17-year-old work rider O’Shane Marsh returns to The Paddock and The Pavilion to update us on his racing journey which began at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton. O’Shane discusses his racing life at Bedford House stables with Charlie Fellowes, trips to the races with some of his trainer’s horses alongside his football exploits with the Prince of Wales pub in Newmarket. Enjoy listening to a young man...

Happy 80th Birthday Richard Pitman In this celebratory podcast we trace the remarkable racing journey of the Cheltenham boy who played truant from school to go to the races.  With the help of close friends and racing colleagues we follow his stories of joy and heartbreak at the Festival, Crisp’s gallant battle with Red Rum in the 1973 Grand National and 37 years working as part of the BBC racing t...

Emily Johnson has her dream job as the resident artist at Cheltenham racecourse.  In our first horse racing podcast of 2023 Emily reveals how a barbecue triggered a career change which set her on the road to becoming a successful professional equine artist. It seems that Emily’s love of art had never left her. Emily talks about the artists she admires, how she got the job at the home of jump racin...

England were back in Test action in Pakistan in December and returning to the podcast to review the series is our cricketing expert, Roland Butcher. The former England International gives his opinion on England’s remarkable clean sweep which was so unexpected considering their previous tours of Pakistan. England had before the tour only won two Tests of their twenty four Test matches in Pakistan....

The first Under 19 Women’s Cricket World Cup is due to start on Saturday 14 January in South Africa. Capture what the competition means to England off spinner Emma Marlow who joined the show shortly before she left for her first overseas cricket assignment. Emma has had a whirlwind two years rising from the Northern Diamonds Academy to a professional contract with them. Along the way the young off...

In February 2022 Patrick Foster released his new book Might Bite, the secret life of a gambling addict. Since then, Patrick has been giving something back and making a difference travelling the globe talking at schools, colleges, sporting organisations and workplaces about the perils of gambling addiction and the issue of mental health. Our 2023 programme begins with the former professional cricke...

In the Pavilion What was it like to…. Play a Boxing Day Ashes Test? In Episode 8 of a series where I pose the question ‘What was it like to…. I spoke to Dennis Amiss England’s leading batsman at the time about playing in a Boxing Day Test at the MCG in 1974 along with his and the team’s experiences in this dramatic series. Dennis reflects back on a compelling Ashes series where the England side ca...

The inspiring work of Natalie O’Rourke to save Park Lane stables in south west, London was one of the good news stories of 2021.  In this Christmas Day edition Natalie, the Manager of Park Lane is back on the podcast to update us on her recent MBE award, book signings of her best seller Only Heroes and Horses, including a trip to Newmarket and the latest news of the move back to their Park Lane ba...

Listen to my interview with Natalie O'Rourke, the Manager of Park Lane stables & help them in their chase to raise £1m by 25 February. Hear the heartwarming story of the family run inner city South West London riding school who do fantastic RDA (Riding for the disabled) work for children & adults giving them the chance to ride & care for horses and ponies. They also have a thriving pony club secti...

Harry Swan, 20 is part of a racing dynasty. From the Osborne’s, the Chaloner’s, the Hyde’s and not forgetting the Swan’s, his father Charlie was a nine-time Irish Champion jockey, he was destined to ride horses. Harry talks about how he started riding ponies, the influence of his mother and winning an eventing silver medal. We hear about his first ride, his first winner at Worcester on Stacey Sue...

Ryan Campbell has had an eventful year. He began the year as the coach of the Netherlands, nearly died in April after a cardiac arrest, came back to lead The Netherlands to success in the T20 World Cup and on 1 December was appointed the Head Coach of Durham County Cricket Club. The former Australian international wicket keeper batter talks through the dramatic events of April 2022 when he collaps...

Tim Brookshaw, National Hunt champion jockey in 1958/59 was a remarkable man with an iron will. In this podcast I was joined by Chris Pitt, author, and racing historian whose latest book ‘Fearless’ covers the career and life of the Shropshire dairy farmer who is remembered for his incredible ride in the 1959 Grand National at Aintree. Regular guest of the podcast Richard Pitman, the former leading...

With England now playing a three match Test series in Pakistan I am delighted to be joined by Leena Aziz, Asia’s first female cricket commentator, who reflects on England’s return to Pakistan after a 17 year gap. Leena talks about her love of cricket which began at a young age playing cricket in her grandmother’s garden. Her passion evolved into writing about cricket as a teenager before she worke...

In this extended podcast I reviewed Amazon Prime’s new dramatic and insightful four-part horse-racing documentary which follows Andrew Balding and his Park House stables at Kingsclere over a nine-month period. Dave James, the CEO and Creative Director of Equine Production and the Co-Director and Co producer of Horsepower joined the show to chat about Horsepower and react to opinions and questions...

Fairbreak’s mission is to create opportunities that progress gender equality on a truly global scale, using cricket as their primary vehicle. In Part 2 of this inspiring series about the 2022 Fairbreak XI tour of England, Scotland and the Netherlands we find out what Fairbreak means to the players along with their off field highlights. You can feel by listening to the players of their love for Fai...

Fairbreak’s mission is to create opportunities that progress gender equality on a truly global scale, using cricket as their primary vehicle. In the first part of this inspiring two-part series, you will hear the story of the Fairbreak XI’s 2022 tour of England, Scotland and the Netherlands through the words of the founder, the manager, the players and one of the hosts.  Shaun Martyn, one of the f...

Former England international & The Paddock and The Pavilion’s cricketing expert Roland Butcher is back to review England’s ICC T20 World Cup win in Australia. We discuss the England versus Pakistan final at the MCG, the reasons why England won the trophy, the disappointing campaign by the hosts and holders Australia, India’s ten wicket Semi Final crushing and something close to Roland’s heart, the...

Ricky Hall, the groom and work rider of Baaeed joins the podcast to give us the up close and personal story of the 2022 Cartier Horse of the year.  Ricky reveals the story behind how he got to work with the star of William Haggas’s Somerville Lodge yard in Newmarket. We must give a shout out to Harry Thorpe-Codman, who originally looked after the horse. Find out how Ricky got into racing, the raci...

On Thursday 3 November 2016 The Queen opened the new National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket as part of her 90th birthday celebrations. Chris Garibaldi, the former Director of the National Horse Racing Museum was a member of a small group who accompanied The Queen, the patron of the museum, around the historic 5-acre site in Palace Street, Newmarket On a momentous day for Newmarket, Suffolk and...