No Balls: Victory for England & a World Cup Q&A

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First Ball Castled.

Now I'm celebrating for Crossy. That one was for Crossy. That was a beautiful delivery. The wobble ball again from Kate Cross and that is such an important wicket. Kate Cross in for the hat trick. But hello and welcome back to no Balls, a great podcast with me, Alex Hartley and you, Kate Cross.

Hello. Oh, that was funny.

Are you okay?

Yeah, no, I'm good, thank you. How are you?

I'm good, thank you. I'm good. How actually are you? I was only asking if you were okay because you said hello in a weird accent.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello. Yeah, I'm okay. I got full of a bit of a cold, so sorry if I sound a bit nasally, but it's officially winter here now. We've had a storm. We've had first storm of the winter. It's been a bit gross, but yeah, I'm good. How are you?

Yeah, I've also been in a storm. It's not stopped raining since I got here. Like it's literally rained every day.

Do you know what? In the build up to this World Cup, I just never thought about the weather because you just don't. You're abroad and you just don't think about the weather. But it's been terrible, hasn't it?

It's been awful. Like genuinely awful. We've obviously had a washed out game. It's rained most days in Colombo. The first game here was rain affected. It's. It's monsoon season. It's coming out of monsoon season in India and going into it in Sri Lanka. So it's. You've just got to hope and pray not very many games are ruined.

Yeah, yeah, you just don't. And 50 over cricket, you just don't want it to become a short format game. And that's because it just takes the whole point of the World cup away from it being like obviously a round robin and then semi finals, finals. But you just want it to be a fair tournament.

I know, I know. And it's just honest when I say it's rained crossy. Like, I went for a walk today and Tash Farrant text me because she's here working for the icc and she said, by the way, it's raining in town, so expect it to be raining up in the mountain where you are in a little while. So I went for a walk. I thought, oh, well, it's not raining, it'll be fine. All of a sudden, I've never seen rain like it. And we were like stuck for a good 40 minutes under this like university building. And then when we were walking home, it was like up to my shins and I just was drenched. Like when you're like drenched to the bone. Henry and Dan then got a little car up the hill because our hotel's on like a resort and we're at the top. But I was like, no, I'll walk up the floor. Was that slippy? I fell twice and I haven't talked. I haven't told them.

Don't tell them, just tell the podcast listeners. Don't tell Dan and Henry.

They were like, how would you walk? You look wet. I was like, yeah, fine, yeah, fine.

Powder, yeah, it was wet on the floor. Wet on the floor. When I fell down, the water was.

Up to mid shin and I just went for a swim.

What else you been up to then if it's been a bit wet and miserable, what you been doing?

Went to play golf yesterday, which was lovely because we had a day off, so left the hotel about 2, got to the golf course around 4 because we went the wrong way. Anyway, it's on this army base, so we go through the gates, through, past the army, give them a wave, hi, hi. Get to the golf course, get out. And they go, how on earth have you got in? This is for army people.

They just let you in?

Just went in and they were like, no, you can't play golf. It's for members only. And we're like, can we become members to play just nine holes now? The sun goes down in an hour. It's taken us that long to get here. And obviously they were like, no. And as we're driving back out literally 10 minutes later to drive the two hours home. They're like the army, like, practicing their drills. We really shouldn't have been there.

Oh, it's going well then. So it's raining and you've been kicked off an army camp.

Yeah. But what I did see was a really, really good England win.

Oh, yes. Should we go into the cricket now? Because we are at a World Cup. Makes sense.

I am here. I've been in Guwahati for a while. It feels like four months, feels like five months. I don't know how long. It feels like it's forever. But I've seen the opening game and I've seen England play and England, my word, were they good the other day?

It was one of those where I just kept an eye on it on the, on the scorecard because it was. It was my birthday on Friday, so I was out with the family for most of the day. And it was almost like you thought there was a mistake on the scorecards because, oh, they're like four, ten for four or something. Ridiculous. So, yeah, I talked me through it because I didn't really. What I saw the highlights, but I've not watched any of it.

Well, I'm going to talk you through. I don't know how to start, but Lauren Bell opens the bowling nine off. So I'm thinking, oh, like first over can obviously go either way, but I'm thinking, oh, these two Tasman Brits, Laura Wolfart. No one scored as many runs as them as an opening pair since 2023. So I'm thinking this is looking a bit ominous. Lindsay Smith comes onto ball at the other end. Wicket. Okay.

Did Lindsay get more swing than Lauren Bell?

Yeah, Lindsay Smith. Lindsey Smith swung the ball so much. Like, she bowled incredibly well. Just targeted the stunts. Ball starting outside the off stump, hooping back in towards the right hander and then it's like, wicket, wicket, wicket. And then that came onto ball, first ball, wicket. It was just, I think five, one of those days, five overs. The first ball of the over was wicket.

That's so like in terms of the start that you want from a tournament, it actually cannot get much better than that. Like, and the net run rate, I don't think anyone would ever have had a plus 3 net run rate in 3 ever.

3.7. Like, it was incredible. It was. And the pitch, you know, wasn't that easy. It took England like, you know, 14 overs to get 70. So it wasn't, it wasn't the easiest pitch in the world, but it also didn't have any demons in it. It was just one of those days for South Africa where you go, this can't get any work. Oh, oh, it's getting worse. There must be somebody else that's going to get double figures. No, no, there isn't.

Well, we've had a few. There's been a few games that I've seen. So like India were 120 for four or five the other day and then Armand Jaw and Deep T had a good partnership and similarly with Australia, they were five down for not many. And then Ash goes and gets 100. So there's been moments where it's really like teetered, hasn't it? But then there's that big partnership and that was obviously just what South Africa lacked and just where England were relentless with the pressure that they were able to put on and just keep taking wickets to be able to bowl them out for a ridiculous score.

Yeah, because at the toss, England have gone one seamer with Nat, so. So they've gone two seamers, three spinners. South Africa went four seamers, three spinners. So I was like, well, one team's really read this wrong or these conditions wrong and I hope it's not England. England obviously won the toss and bowled South Africa out for 69. I was like, we'll never know who was right or wrong, but it's looking like England.

And then South Africa played for seamers but then opened the bowling with Chloe Tryon because they tried to emulate what Lindsay did. So it kind of just showed how much it had played in their heads, that that felt like the right thing to do. Whereas actually the team they played, it wasn't the right thing to do to open with Chloe Tryon.

No, it wasn't. It wasn't. And it was strange watching us with the run chase because Tammy couldn't hit the ball off the square. I think she ended up 15 or 40 or something, something like that. But Amy then was struggling and then would hit one to mid wicket and get four for it. And then Tammy would rotate the strike and Amy would hit four and. But it still took us a while to knock off. But we were like thinking we could chase this in seven overs. Our net run rate is going to be ridiculous and it still is ridiculous. And I guess a win like that for England, like basically take away the weather, basically guarantees us a semi final already with a win like that already. Yeah. Because you would think Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, we, we would win all of those and then you've got New Zealand New Zealand could win, but 70% chance that we're going to win that one as well. Then you've got Australia and India, but we're basically with our net room, we're plus one one point. So.

Yeah, yeah. Well, like I said, amazing start for them. They play again on Tuesday.

Tuesday, yeah, Tuesday.

And you know who they play?

Bangladesh.

Bangladesh. Okay, nice.

Yeah.

So yeah, I mean I remember looking at like South Africa as an opener thinking like that's, that's actually quite a tough. I think we spoke about it actually on the pod that it actually could be a tough game but the fact that they dominated that. I cannot tell you what that will do to the dressing room. It'll just be so, so, so good for that dressing room.

Especially moving forward when Tuesday is Bangladesh and then it's Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Sri Lanka. So then actually our next three games are really lovely run of games to get into the tournament. When then you come up against new then India, then Australia is our final group game. So it's almost like it couldn't have obviously gone better, but now we've got an easier run. The only thing now, cross it is as we've spoken about it, the weather.

The weather, yeah.

Because if, if Bangladesh get three reindor, that's a point and a half. That's more points than they're expecting to even get in this tournament.

Yeah. But everything else result wise has gone the way it was expected to go, wasn't it? Everyone's beat a bar. The rained off game against Australia where they shared the points. Australia and Sri Lanka. Sorry that they shared the points. Everything has gone the way it as you would have expected it to go.

Yeah. It's been one of those world cups where every day we wake up and in the group there's a message saying, what's the weather?

Yeah, you just, it's such a shame and you just can't control that. You just have to like get on with it. But it is just so frustrating when cricket is affected by rain.

I have got good news for all the podcast listeners. I've got my visa to Sri Lanka.

Oh, nice. Congratulations.

Yes. So I'm going there on Wednesday. I text my mom.

I didn't think that was the problem. I thought it was getting the visa to come back in.

Yeah, sorry. I've got my Indian visa.

Right. Okay.

I text my mom saying I've got my visa for India so I'm going to Sri Lanka. She replied 10 minutes later saying, I booked my flights. Julia's there. Oh, good on you Julia, I said, oh, what when you get in? She gets in 12 hours before me and leaves the day we leave.

Great.

She's having eight days.

Good on her.

What have you been up to?

I've been training a little bit. Been back bowling. I had a birthday which I spent with my family and with the kids, which was very cute. And that's it, really. Not much to report. We're going into party season now, so, like end of season dinners start this week. Well, next week. So we've got the PCAs, we've got the end of season due for lanks. So, yeah, a few things to look forward to this week.

Have you got your dresses?

Not yet, but I've got enough dresses that I don't, you know, I'll be fine.

Also, Mum and Dad have got a housekeeper, mine, which you can go and grab anything you need. So it's fine.

Yeah, be absolutely fine. So, yeah, that'd be nice because obviously we had a great season with lank, so we weren't. There wasn't going to be many of the lank skills going to the PCAs. And I was like, we've won the double. We absolutely should have a good table there. So there's seven of us going, which would be nice.

Yeah. Oh, okay, that's good. So people like delayed holidays or whatever or.

Well, that's been the problem because the holidays, obviously we finished the season on the 21st of September and everyone's back in end of October, start of November, so it is holiday time. So a few people on holiday, but we've got enough people there that we can celebrate. Celebrate the double, which would be really nice. It'll be great to see some of the lank skills again because similar with the 100, you win a tournament, you would get a bus back the next day and then you don't see anyone for like weeks on end. So it'll be nice to see them again. Have you got anything on your sticky note?

Sticky note wise crossy, I'm gonna have a quick look. I don't think I've got anything on my sticky note, but what I have got is a list of everything silly that's happened to us while we've been in India and there are some brilliant things on here. I'm going to give you like a little taster. I don't know if I got into it last week, did I?

No.

Okay. When I say I've got a list, I've got.

Oh, wow, you do. Oh, you know, you don't put this much effort into the podcast?

No, because Crossy, when I read some of these out, it is fantastic. So turn up to Delhi airport. 7 hour wait for the team to get in. I go to Costa and say, have you got oat milk? They say, yeah, yeah, of course we got oat milk. I said, oh, amazing. Please, can I have an oat latte? They say, have you got an intolerance or a reaction is what she said. I said, no, no, I just don't really like full fat milk. And she said, oh, well, I can get you oat milk, but ours comes from a cow.

Oh, oh, right. Okay. So not oat milk then.

Yeah. I was like, I'll just have a croissant, please.

Yeah. Nice, nice. Okay.

Went to. There's a full list. I'm just gonna pick out the best ones. Went to the restaurant the other day. Fion ordered salt and pepper chicken with a side of steamed rice. And the woman said, I'm really sorry, you can't have steamed rice with a salt and pepper chicken. So Fion was like, okay, no worries. I'll have noodles. And the woman went, would you like rice as well?

Okay.

Feel like we're being pranked.

Like, yeah, maybe you've been filmed.

It's honestly so funny. Phil Long went for, like, do you know one of those, like, razor trims?

Yeah, yeah.

In the street, what they call the death razor or something. I don't know what they're called. With, like, the really sharp old school blade. Anyway, yeah, one of those. So he's like, can I have a skin shave? And the man said, yeah, no worries. Anyway, instead of using the shaver that he wanted, he just used an electric one. So, like, trimmed his beard for him, then started massaging his head and kept slapping him on the forehead every five seconds. So you came to the commentary box and he was like, I'm traumatized.

Wow, a cutthroat razor. Jack's just told us it's called a cutthroat razor.

That's the one. So you just got an electric shave.

And a headrest, which he could have done himself.

Yeah, the head massage of the forehead slap every practice.

A lot of things do get lost in translation when you're in the subcontinent.

I find they do, they do. And the last one, because I've got a full list of them, but I'll just do the last one. We obviously get security checked going into the ground and we go in. Me and Fion go through a different entrance. We get searched, like, behind a screen. And then the boys go through, like, the Normal one. Anyway, Henry's getting his bag searched and the policeman says, what's that? And Henry says, it's my camera. The policeman says, prove it. Take a photo. And posed for the photo Henry had to take. And then Henry had to show him the photo. Henry just got a photo of the policeman on his camera.

Yeah. That's nice. I like that. I hope that goes on social media. Yeah.

So now you know the camera's allowed at the ground.

That was a bit like when I came, when we did the episode in the new studio the other day. I had a bottle of water with me when I got to security. And you get searched, don't you, before you go through into the bed. BBC. And then the guy was like, can you just take a sip of the water, please? So I was like, oh, if that's anything bad, like if it was petrol and I was going to start a fire in there, then I've just drank petrol. Well, it was water because I don't walk around with a bottle of petrol. But yeah, it was. It was quite a good way of, I guess, proving that you're. You're innocent.

Yeah, there's. Honestly, there's been so many. But I'll save. So I'll save them for a range.

Yeah, keep updating. Keep updating us on them. I've got one thing on my sticky note that I just want to bring up and it's a bit of a. It's a bit of a moan, actually, Not a moan. It's a constructive bit of feedback, I think.

To me.

No, to the icc.

Okay.

So I was watching India play in their opening game and Harman Preet always bats against spin with a hat on. Yeah, she went to sweep a ball and it like top edges into her throat, which obviously, if she had a helmet on, it wouldn't have. It wouldn't have made a difference whatsoever. But it really made me think about why the ICC haven't brought in the rule that you have to wear a helmet at all times when you're batting. And the conclusion I've come to is that as soon as someone gets hit in the head, the rule will change. So why are we waiting for someone to get hit in the head for this rule to then get brought in? And it really now is starting to bug me.

I know. And you know what? I actually totally agree with you that I think we've had this conversation with Glenn Maxwell on the pod, haven't we? Because he reversed sweat one and cut his eye. And it's almost like, why. Why are you doing that like, I know it's hot under a helmet, but you'd rather that than break a nose, lose an eye, break an eye socket, lose some teeth?

Yeah.

Because of the worst.

Was it Boucher who got an eye injury that forced him to retire as well? I think that was from him. Wicketkeeping, but pretty confident it came from. And get a hit in the eye. And then like the. The problems meant that he then couldn't carry on playing cricket. And keysweater was the same as well. So, like, why are we waiting for this bad injury to happen before the rule will come? It will come in. It absolutely will come in. So why are we waiting for something bad to happen?

You know what? I crossy. I couldn't agree more.

So I might start a petition to the icc.

Yeah, okay. Okay.

Do you know what? I won't. I'm not gonna. But you know, someone should.

You got nothing to lose.

No, that's true. That's true. I'll put it on my list of things to do. I've got a lot of stuff on that list at the minute.

Have you? You got a big to do list?

Yeah, I'm just putting everything off all the time. Every day.

It's a problem for a later date.

Yeah. Fighting the ICC is probably not priority at the minute.

What did Kate Cross do as soon as she stopped playing cricket? Had a fight with the icc?

Yeah, why not? Why not?

Why not? Why not?

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Right, we put some questions out, didn't we, to our fans?

We did. I'm not sure we've had any emails this week, so we had to put some questions out. Some questions? Oh, guess who got brought up on commentary the other day? Blast from the past questions.

Jam Britain.

Amy Satterthwaite.

Oh, Sats. I've been speaking to Sats a little bit recently actually.

Have you still the only woman to score four consecutive.

Four consecutives. Her and Kumar, I think, are the two. Two players who have done it. And Tasman. Brits nearly did it, didn't she? She had three back to back, three back to back.

And then England humbled her.

Well done. Lindsay's faith. Okay, so the question went out with a photo of you with the World Cup. So a lot of people have actually directed questions to you, so I probably just ask them if needs be.

Well, no, because how many hours to the start of a game is the squad selected?

It depends, doesn't it? I think generally you try and give the team out the night before or certainly Lottie always tried to give the team out the day before. Just gives people 24 hours to chat through plans and work things out. And also get your head around it if you're not playing as well, because I think that's quite an important part of. Part of it that people don't see. But there's obviously always disappointment when a team goes out for four or five players. But it could change if there's rain around. Sometimes you name a 13 and say if the game's going to be reduced, we'll go with this. Because that's more of a T20 side. So it varies.

Yeah. If it rained, I never played. It was either you or Danny Hazel.

Similar for me. Now actually, what's a warm up for a game like in international cricket? That's from Josh.

Okay. Well, always starts with like a bit of foam rolling and some activations. Before you do anything, get out there. Well, food first, obviously that's part of the warm up. Then you do a bit of foam rolling, some activations, then it's like whatever each individual wants to do. But then there's always a little bit of one bounce.

So for an individual, you used to go and bowl then, didn't you? So before you did any running or anything, you'd go and bowl.

Yeah, because I don't need to sprint so like I don't need to like you would have to like warm up a little bit more than I did before you bowled. So you might go and play one bounce, then do some running. Whereas I just go bowl before anybody got there so that I could just have five minutes. Selfish, Alex. Selfish time, I used to call it. So I used to have to time it as if there was no one there.

Yeah. Whereas, yeah, I would have to do a full runny, like stretchy warm up with the team before I could consider bowling because I am old and can't just do that stuff anymore now.

Well, I walked in on four spots, it's fine.

But then you go and do a team warm up after that, don't you? So you go and do they always try. And the S and C is now you've got to get like high speed running in. So you'll always be like three or four sprints or top end running.

And then we played. Not international, but we played a hundred season. I won't say who the said player was and she wouldn't do the high sprint running or the running walk because she'd say she doesn't like running, it's bad for her knees. She'd just sit out.

Nice. I like that. And then it depends generally what the toss is. So if we were bowling first, obviously the bowlers generally go and. Oh, so you do team fielding, go and get your fielding done. When you warm your arms up for your throws, then you'd go. If you bowling first, go and get your bowling done. If we were batting, I would still bowl because I like to feel good before I've then go and sit down for three hours. Which is the irony of cricket because in the midpoint warm up, you do less than half of what you do in the start of the day warm up. Which is so funny for me because why do you bother doing 45 minutes of time the start of the day and then you only do 20 minutes in the middle of the day?

I know, it's weird, isn't it? There's some games. The toss is like an hour before.

Yeah.

45 minutes. And that, that just makes so much more sense.

In the 100 it was 45 minutes before. So you, before you even started running, you knew what you were doing. So if we were batting first, I knew I didn't have to like go to my max because I could. I'm switching off again in 20 minutes time because I'm going to go and sit down and get a cup of tea and watch how batters bat.

Yeah, yeah.

Some teams play a game, don't they? They'll play like a little one bounce, not one bounce game, but like a football game or that vortex game where you throw in and. Yeah, everyone's got their own thing. Yeah, yeah.

I think a lot of teams do similar as well, don't they? As in like not just international but like franchise club cricket. Like I've done club cricket warm ups where you've all done drills.

My club cricket warm up when I last played for Haywood was just a 5 a 5 a side game of football. We just didn't do any cricket.

It was amazing, amazing, amazing. Yeah.

I just went in goal. It was great.

What is your opinion on the current format? Should there be more teams and groups? I think there should be more teams at this World Cup. I can't lie. I would love there to be more teams. I think West Indies, Scotland, Ireland. For me, one of them would have to miss out. And they will miss out next time. Or somebody will. But yeah, I'd love 10 teams.

Okay. I like the idea of playing everyone, but I think obviously if you bring more teams in then you're probably going to need groups.

Yeah, 10 team round robin would still work. That's what the men do.

Right. Okay. Still doable.

It's just longer.

Yeah, obviously a lot of people just saying that. You're good on the radio. Have you shrunk? Have you shrunk or was Kate Cross always 6 inches taller than you? Why? Why are we talking like I'm dead?

Crossy has always, always been 6 inches taller than me.

I still am.

Yeah.

That's not changed. Yeah, you're my short friend.

Does that know you don't call me your short friend.

Yeah, my short little mate.

I know you call me your little mate.

Little mate. You're my little mate.

My little mate. Yeah, but short, you can't call me. It's like calling somebody a short king.

Little mate is the same as short friend. It's two different ways of saying the same words.

One's quite harsh.

Alright, I'll start calling you my short friend. My short friend. Alex.

No. What was more likely to have rain this week? Manchester or Sri Lanka Storm?

Amy. Terrible.

Is that what she's called? Amy?

Yeah. I hope everyone's been okay and safe and stuff, but. Yeah, has it been that bad? Oh, it's been awful. Al. Last three days been grim.

Yeah. Angie asks, how's our fabulous Kate doing?

Oh, I'm okay, thank you. Little full of a cold this week, but otherwise I'm good.

I'm not gonna lie. You get fabulous Kate and I get short king.

Alex, you've said that. You're making yourself the victim here, Alan. No one ever said short king but you. Such short friend Harry Jones has asked, what is your favorite memory of a World Cup?

Oh, I don't want to say it. Two fingers for the drinking game.

Yes. Go on. It's a weekend. Get everyone in the time I won it. Yeah, nice. Just that. Just that game. Just the final game.

Yeah, that was my favourite memory. Although like my favorite memory within a game that wasn't. That was bowling to Susie Bates who hit me for two consecutive falls off the back foot really nicely through mid wicket. And the third ball was a left arm spinner's dream. Pitched up middle, turned outside off stump and stumping from Sarah Taylor.

Nice. You also had Meg Lanning, didn't you? With a Stumping came down the pitch, like, almost yorked her and then Boulder. Was it bold?

Bo, what about you?

I think it probably would have been the semi final in New Zealand. That's the only World Cup I've actually played in, so I'm limited, really. But Sophie obviously got the six foot, but there was just a bit of beef between her and Ishmael and it got a bit heated and it was the first time that there's been a bit of crutch in the women's game. And it was like, Soph did this cool celebration and. Yeah, it was just. It was. She obviously had a great game and she was off. When she celebrates a bit, like she did in the Ashes in 2023 when she got her five foots, she was just off and you had to grab her and it was like. That was pretty cool. Yeah. And obviously with that game, we made it through to a World cup final, so that was. That was pretty special day.

Joe says, I don't care about anything else. I just want to know how Crossy is doing.

Oh, well, we've talked about that enough.

So cute, though.

Colleen said, are we definitely gonna get a semi?

Yeah, that I did say on air and I didn't realize. I said. I said it three times in the first two times. I was like, oh, England guaranteed a semi. That's the sort of game. It gives you a semi. Like a semi final.

They should be looking to knock this off in 8, 9 overs because. Yeah, what that would do for their net run.

What it would do. It gives you a semi final, doesn't it?

It's almost. It almost gets you there, doesn't it?

Gives you. It gives you a semi. And then I was like, oh, I've got one here. I've got a good one. So I said it again. And Jack. Producer Jack, text me saying, Alex Hartley, then text me again saying, Alexandra Hartley, and then text me again saying, you'll be on the next flight home if you say it again.

That's not like you. How's your calf doing?

Oh, do you know what, Crossy? I've actually rehabbed it since getting here.

I've been quite proud of you, actually. You've been doing some integrated training, which you just didn't do last time. So I'm proud of you.

I have. And I've been doing calf raises. I've been squatting. I've been, like, doing some, like, body weight stuff and.

Good girl.

I'm actually going to run after this pod because I've still got 5,000 steps to do.

Okay.

And it's been. It's been good. It's fine.

Good girl. I'm proud of you. Well done. I was talking to someone the other day about you and your calf, and their response was. That is remarkable to say that she was a professional athlete. And I was like. That was exactly what I said to you. If you weren't a professional athlete, I wouldn't have been as annoyed at you. But you were a professional athlete, so you knew that you have to rehab an injury and you didn't.

Yeah, no, I was walking down the hill today and it was a bit tight. But no, I've been able to.

Walking or falling?

Yeah, falling down a hill today I've been able to run, which has been quite nice because I've. Did I tell everyone on the pod, I've promised myself 10,000 steps a day during this World cup, and I am eight days in, and I've done it every day.

Good girl. So you gotta go get your 5,000 in now.

Yeah, I'm gonna go do it now.

Got some lovely, exciting news for next week's episode, though.

We've got an international cricketer, We've got.

A guest, and we've already recorded it, so we know what gets said.

Yeah, and you don't. Ha ha.

Oh. Oh, we've had an email. Oh, it's a late. It's a late entry. Go on, then.

It's a late entry from Will, isn't it?

Who we going upstairs with?

Well, just a quickie. Yeah, Lauren Hagenbag.

Yeah, go on. She's on field right now. She's on my telly. This is the email from Will, by the way. So another of my favourite podcasts on rotation is the Football Cliches Podcast, a knowingly niche podcast about the language of football. I listen regularly and enjoy it almost as much as no balls. Imagine my shock then, when a listener's message was read out on the podcast and not once, but twice, was a certain Hen Cowan named. I have no idea if it's the same hen, but. But I was still ready to sip a few fingers just because of the mention of them. I nearly read that as slip a few fingers, which is not the game. Different game, not ours. Hen. What's hen getting mentioned on a football podcast for?

I think I've been on that podcast a few times. You know, it's like silly things that are said, but, like, go on, hen. It's gotta be hen.

I'm gonna send this to them and then see what they come back with.

About to do the same thing.

Can you confirm that this is you?

There you go. We will find out.

We'll let you know. Yeah, we'll let you know. Thank you, Will. Hope you're not too drunk from the podcast. But podcasts are fun podcasts. There's loads of games to be played.

So you know, email me now.

Crossy on noblespodcastbc.co.uk.

Noballspodcastbc.Co.Uk.

It so good. They've said it twice. You can WhatsApp us as well.

033-01-231826 and you can text us on.

8 double 1 11. But with both of those, you've got to start your message with no balls. All one word.

Easy this now, innit?

We've done that so many times now that it's actually nearly right.

Bye.

Alright, see you. Maisie Adams and I'm Susie Ruffle and we host the women's football podcast Big Kick Energy.

Each week we bring you the latest.

From the WSL and beyond. Whether you're a lifelong fan like me or a newer fan like me and have recently got swept up in the lionesses excitement. We've got everything you need to know about the women's game and chance. We've got chance. Oh yes, we love a chance. And finding ways to shoehorn in some truly obscure pop culture references. It's actually quite a silly podcast. Yeah. Listen now on BBC Sound. Yeah, you should. Okay, cool.

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