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

We are off to the races today, Cheltenham races, ahead of the Cheltenham Festival with Brough Scott, one of Britain’s most respected journalists and broadcasters. Brough will be at the festival working for ITV racing but for the next hour enjoy his golden memories of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Brough reveals his top three Gold Cup winners, best horse never to win the race, best training performance,...

In the Paddock What was it like to....win the Cheltenham Gold Cup? In Episode 13 of a series where I pose the question ‘What was it like to…. I spoke to Graham McCourt, who was part of the biggest shock in history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup when he won the race riding the 100/1 outsider Norton's Coin in 1990.. Graham recalls how he got the ride on the horse, what it was like to work for trainer an...

Joining us on today’s show is Grace Bambury an inspiring young woman who is currently a professional cricket umpire and in the 4th year of her 5-year medical degree at Keele University. Find out how Grace manages studying for her medical degree with the challenges of umpiring international players in the hundred. It’s an insightful look into how she balances the two roles, transferring skills betw...

2024 is a special year for the Cheltenham Gold Cup which is due to celebrate its centenary on Friday 15 March. Joining us for today’s episode is Andre Klein, the Assistant General Manager of Cheltenham racecourse, who has been on the road and much more with the original Gold Cup trophy. Andre’s tour began with a four-peak challenge in four days last summer, in aid of Racing Welfare, when he took t...

In this podcast journalist Aaron Gransby, who has just written a new book, the Fakenham Favourite, joins us to tell the story of Cool Roxy and the Blackmores, Alan, and his wife Pat.  Alan reflects on Cool Roxy’s amazing career, a record eleven wins at Fakenham, and the difference training horses from his small yard in Little Berkhamsted  made to his family’s life before retiring in 2019 at the ag...

On today’s show we are back to the turf with Harry Herbert, the charismatic Chairman and Managing Director of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing. Harry talks about how he set up Highclere Racing and how he and his team manage Europe’s leading racehorse syndication company. We focus on the journey of Highclere’s first domestic classic winner Cachet, the 2022 1000 Guineas winner, who was sold for 2.2 mil...

Cricket fans will know England have just begun a test series against India and before the action began in Hyderabad, I spoke to former England opening batsman Dennis Amiss about his days touring India during the 1970s. Dennis gives us an insightful account of his battles with legendary Indian spinners Bishan Bedi and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar in two contrasting Test match tours, 1972/73 and 1976/77. ...

With England’s five Test cricket tour of India due to start on 25 January today’s show features a man who will be at heart of the action, the Barmy Army trumpeter Simon Finch. Simon, known as Finchy, became the official Barmy Army trumpeter in early 2020 though because of the pandemic didn’t make his match day debut until the summer of 2021 when England played New Zealand at Edgbaston. You can’t h...

On today’s show we are looking back to the 2023 flat racing year through the words of Sam Martin. Kitty Trice and John Berry, who have all been regular guests on the show. Sam, a young journalist for Rein it in Racing and Careers in Racing gives her thoughts on many of the major flat racing stories of 2023 while Racing Post bloodstock journalist Kitty Trice and Newmarket based trainer John Berry a...

On today’s show we are going back to last summer, for the final part of our 2023 Silver Ashes series. You may recall during August I spoke to the England over 70s Captain John Evans about their first two one day internationals, both of which England won to retain the Ashes. In this final part John was joined by England all-rounder Nick Andrews alongside Australian captain and opening batsman Tom W...

Welcome to our final Festive five podcast.  Today we are back with cricket with Elite umpire Sue Redfern, who previously joined the show in Episode 95. In September 2023 Sue became the first female to umpire in a men’s county championship game when Glamorgan played Derbyshire in Cardiff. In a wide-ranging podcast, you will hear Sue’s reflections on that historic day for umpiring, the differences b...

Welcome to the fourth of our Festive five podcasts. On today’s show we have a one of our most inspiring guests, Natalie O’Rourke MBE the manager of Park Lane stables, who updates us on their move back to Teddington In southwest London. Natalie and Park lane stables were one of the good news stories of 2021 when the award-winning charity and Riding for the Disabled Association centre were saved fro...

Welcome to the third of our Festive five podcasts. Today’s show is about a racecourse, Fakenham racecourse, the only National Hunt course in Norfolk. Through the words of the course’s Chief Executive Officer and Clerk of the Course David Hunter, the racecourse announcer Steven Powell, staff, members, spectators, jockeys, Tabitha Worsley, Nick Scholfield and Jack Quinlan, trainer Lucy Wadham and th...

Welcome to the second of our Festive five podcasts - Today we are going racing with former National Hunt jockey Jacob Pritchard Webb. Jacob’s world changed dramatically in June 2020 when a race riding accident in France left him paralysed from the chest down. I first spoke to the young jockey in August 2021, in Episode 78 about the fall whilst in Episode 79 he described his six months stay in a Fr...

Welcome to the first of our festive five podcasts. Opening the batting as he used to do for Western Australia is Ryan Campbell, now the head coach of Durham CCC, who last season won division 2 of the county championship by a mammoth 66 points. Ryan reflects on Durham’s outstanding season and looks ahead, with confidence, to their return to the top division in 2024. The former Dutch coach gives his...

For the show’s last episode before Christmas, we conclude our nostalgic chat with Mike Thompson, who has just written ‘The Last Corinthian’ which covers the cricketing life of former England captain MJK Smith. After covering his early cricket career in Part 1, today’s episode covers MJK Smith’s Test career. Capture more cricketing history as Mike reveals some fascinating stories about MJK’s Test c...

Mike Smith, more commonly known in cricket as MJK Smith was a leading English cricketer of the 1950s,1960s and 1970s who captained England in 25 of his 50 Test matches. A remarkable sportsman Mike, now 90, also played a rugby union international for his country in 1956. He remains England’s last double international. In this podcast, split into two parts, cricket writer Mike Thompson talks about h...

Today’s show features the 2nd of our World Cup round ups, this time with a player who was at- the heart of the action, The Netherlands fast bowler, Paul Van Meekeren. Anyone who enjoyed the Men’s World Cup in India must have loved watching the team in orange, The Netherlands, with their passion, commitment and skill, the underdogs who punched above their weight to qualify for the global event, and...

The show’s cricketing expert former England international Roland Butcher is back to talk cricket and in particular review the recent men’s World Cup in India. Roland reflects on the competition, the reasons why Australia emerged victorious, the failings of England, gives his thoughts on the other teams along with choosing his best batter and best bowler of the tournament. Roland reveals why he thi...

On today’s show we are concentrating on the IPL, the Indian Premier League, for the first time, with James Pamment, the specialist fielding coach of the Mumbai Indians, one of the most famous teams in the world. James has worked with the Mumbai franchise since 2017. His role has widened in the past year to include MI Cape Town in the SA T20 and MI New York in Major League Cricket. A podcast that t...

In last week’s episode we focused on the bloodstock world, this week it’s the turn of National Hunt racing with conditional jockey Charlotte Jones, who I interviewed at the end of September. Charlotte is a first-class northern jockey who has just had an incredible couple of race days, riding a treble at Hexham on November 10 and double at Kelso the following day, five rides, five winners, all for...

The master of suspense and intrigue Felix Francis is back for this episode to chat about his new blockbuster ‘No Reserve’ which focuses on the world of horse racing bloodstock based in Newmarket.   Find out how Felix prepares, how he frames the outcome and much more…  No spoilers, but It’s a real page turner from a master storyteller. Felix previously appeared on The Paddock and The Pavilion in Ep...

In a special Cricket World Cup podcast, I was joined by Shazia, the Afghanistan women's captain, who now lives in Australia, to get her reaction to her country's famous victory over reigning champions England on xx October. The Afghanistan men's team who only played their first World Cup qualifier in 2008 defeated England by 69 runs in one of the biggest shocks in the competition's 48 year history...

Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday 21 October 2023 is set to be Frankie Dettori’s British farewell. In a special podcast to celebrate the legendary Italian’s farewell I was joined by a quartet of experts, jockey Rab Havlin, journalists Edward Sadler and Kitty Trice and Will Aitkenhead from Ascot Racecourse. Rab, a close friend of Frankie revealed what’s it like to work with the world’s most famous...

In Part 2 of All over the World Jenny Thompson explained how women’s cricket is now thriving throughout the world, despite the barriers they have faced, and still do.   I also posed Jenny the question, Where will the women’s game be in ten years’ time? I found out how the world’s leading cricketing traveller has been dealing with the mental and physical challenges of playing cricket all over the w...