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

Welcome to the second of our Royal Ascot shows where I would like to take you back 50 years to the day when Australian jockey Ron Hutchinson won the Ascot Gold Cup on the Duke of Norfolk’s’ horse Ragstone Ron Hutchinson, now a sprightly 96 years old joined me from his family home in Melbourne to remember a dream day in his long racing career when Ragstone, a horse bred by the Duke got up to win th...

Welcome to the first of our two Royal Ascot shows. Joining us for our opening show is young Aussie trainer Henry Dwyer, who is hoping to strike Group 1 Gold with his  five year old mare Asfoora in the King Charles III Stakes, formerly the King Stand Stakes on the opening day of the Royal meeting. I caught up with Henry from his base in Newmarket just a few days before the race. Our next Royal Asco...

It’s been over 12 months since I last featured FairBreak, so there is no one better to speak to than their  CEO Cheryll Rogers, who as you will find out has had a busy nine months in the role. On The Paddock and The Pavilion, I’ve been a strong advocate of the movement whose mission is to progress equality on a truly global scale using cricket as their vehicle.  Many Fairbreakers from around the w...

Welcome to the third part of our series Embracing the Challenge with Hermione Drummond Moray Hermione is currently preparing for the Macmillan Ride of their Lives charity race at York on Saturday 15 June. Eight days before race day at the time of recording Hermione updates us on news of her race fitness test, riding out on the Newmarket Heath with her horse Currency Exchange along with the latest...

In the Pavilion What was it like to....Win the T20 World Cup? In Episode 15 of a series where I pose the question ‘What was it like to…. I spoke to Mike Yardy, the Sussex CCC and England all rounder about winning the 2010 T20 World Cup, the first World Cup win by an England men’s team. In a wide ranging, insightful interview Mike talks about the beginning of T20 cricket in 2003, success leading Su...

Welcome to our final pre–Men’s T20 World Cup podcast. Today we welcome back Simon Finch, known as Finchy, The Barmy Army trumpeter who previously joined us in  episode 244 All you need is cricket and a trumpet.  https://chrt.fm/track/4F8ACF/traffic.megaphone.fm/COMG6230091174.mp3?updated=1706087835 On today’s show Simon reflects on his recent trip touring India with The Barmy Army.   The food, the...

In the Paddock What was it like to....win the Derby? In Episode 14 of a series where I pose the question ‘What was it like to…. I spoke to Emmet McNamara, who in July 2020 shocked the racing world when he rode Serpentine to win the most famous flat race of them all at Epsom for trainer Aidan O’Brien. Emmet recalls the chesnut son of Galileo as a two year, the build up to the historic race, the dra...

Welcome to the second of our men’s T20 World Cup podcasts. Today we are focusing on one of the co-hosts United States and their high order batter Andries Gous. South African born Andries reveals his cricketing background, his move to cricket’s last frontier and the excitingprospect of playing against the all-conquering Indian side in New York on 12 June. Andries also adds his thoughts on Major Lea...

Welcome to the first of our three Men’s T20 World Cup podcasts as we build up to the tournament which begins on Saturday 1 June in the United States. Joining us for our opening show is Brian Masaba, the experienced Ugandan skipper and all-rounder, who chats about his own cricketing journey, his country’s successful qualifying campaign in Namibia, how cricket is growing in his country along with th...

Welcome to the second part of our series Embracing the Challenge with Hermione Drummond Moray Hermione is currently preparing for the Macmillan Ride of their Lives charity race at York on Saturday 15 June. Newmarket based trainer James Ferguson, strength and conditioning coach Glen Reed and Megan Hayman Tansley a Relationship Fundraising Manager with Macmillan Cancer join us to help update you all...

The county cricket season is now in full swing and on today’s show you will be hearing from sportswriter Ben Bloom to talk all things county cricket. Ben has just written Batting for Time, a fascinating book which explores the fight to keep English cricket alive against the growing influence of franchise cricket around the world. Ben discusses with me the many areas which are affecting county cric...

Joining us today is Rosa Simkin of Rosa Talks Ball, a previous guest on the show and a passionate supporter of women’s sport. Discover how she discovered her interest in women’s sport and established her growing media outlet Rosa Talks Ball. Rosa looks ahead to the major events in the women’s 2024 cricket calendar and gives her predictions of the likely trophy winners. Rosa also selects her Englan...

Joining us on today’s show is Callum Helliwell, a young Sky Sports Racing presenter, who if you are a racing fan can regularly be seen on Sky Sports, channel 415.  Engaging, passionate and knowledgeable about the sport he loves, Callum tells us about what it’s like to work on live television in Britain and Saudi Arabia, including working at the Saudi Cup, the world’s richest race. In addition, you...

We are back to cricket today and the growing world of senior’s cricket. Our main guest is the current England over 60s captain Richard Merriman, who has just come back from the heat of a World Cup in India. Richard talks about the twelve nation competition based in Chennai where England reached the final. The England captain reflects on the challenges the squad faced on the sub-continent, the Engl...

On The Paddock and The Pavilion, we love inspiring series. We’ve had jockey Gavin Ashton’s five-part The road to recovery, and we have recently been featuring Jenny Thompson promoting women’s cricket on her world cricket tour. Joining us for our latest is Hermione Drummond Moray a young former event rider who is currently training to ride in the Macmillan ride of their lives charity race at York r...

It’s about time we had some racing back on the show and after our spell of cricket our guest for Ep 260 is the Newmarket based trainer Dylan Cunha, the South African who has made a flying start to the flat season. In a fascinating show Dylan talks about Group 1 glory in South Africa, his decision to stop training in his late twenties followed by a complete career change to become an airline pilot...

Today we are joined, or should I say rejoined by German International cricketer Tina Gough who has featured in several previous episodes on The Paddock and The Pavilion. (Ep 185, 194, 195 & 213) Tina, the German opening batter, and medium pace bowler talks about her International career which started twice, in 2015 and then officially in 2019 against Scotland. You will also hear about her two trip...

Today’s show focusses all things West Indies cricket with the show’s cricketing expert Roland Butcher. As many of you will know Roland, born in Barbados moved to England as a teenager and in 1980 became the first black player to play international cricket for England.  He now lives in Barbados but regularly comes back to the UK for media work. Roland is currently working for the BCC covering this...

Former England international Roland Butcher and The Paddock and The Pavilion’s cricketing expert is back for the first time in 2024 to review the recent India versus England Test series where the new look England side under Brendan McCullum and Ben Stokes suffered their first series defeat. Roland offers his forthright and insightful opinions on the reasons why England were eventually heavily beat...

In Part 4 of All over the World Jenny Thompson, the former Cheshire and Lancashire player joins us to chat about her Christmas and the New Year in Australia, the joys of travelling on #herworldcrickettour and the growth of women’s cricket. You will hear stories about two of the invisible giants, Joanne Broadbent and Jill Kennare as Jenny calls them, who she met up with at the end of 2023, plenty o...

After our recent feast of Cheltenham podcasts today we are back to cricket with a previous guest Jenny Thompson, who is currently on #herworldcrickettour. I last spoke to Jenny in Episodes 226 and 227 back in September 2023. As before we have two more shows with the most passionate of all cricket players. In Part 3 Jenny talks about her trips to Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica Fiji, and New Zealand...

Capture the memories and thrills of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in our final podcast celebrating the centenary of this famous race through the words of three former leading jockeys and three leading journalists. From the saddle you will hear from Graham McCourt a winner on Norton’s Coin in 1990, Charlie Swan of Istabraq fame and Charlie Fenwick, the Grand National winning jockey of 1980, while joining...

Welcome to our second part with Stan Hayhurst, the oldest living Cheltenham Gold Cup winning jockey. In Part two Stan remembers another Golden day at Cheltenham with the mare Kerstin as well as riding the giant Aintree fences of the 1950s and 60s including his connection with the massive pile up in the 1967 Grand National when the 100/1 outsider Foinavon shocked the sporting world.  Stan reflects...

For our next podcast celebrating the centenary of the Cheltenham Gold Cup I was joined by Stan Hayhurst, the oldest living Gold Cup winning jockey. In the first of two parts, with the now 90-year-old Stan, the northern based jockey recounts his special day at Cheltenham in March 1958 on the mare Kerstin.  Stan recalls his early days in racing as an apprentice with Verly Bewicke, his first winner i...

For our next Cheltenham Festival episode, I was joined by Chris Pitt, author and racing historian, who has just written ‘Let no memories fade’ a book celebrating this year’s centenary of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Enjoy some of the unique, fascinating and major stories about the famous race from a Cheltenham Gold Cup Mastermind. The worst horse to run in the race, the war years, a controversial resu...