Pimp Coat and Mood W***

0:00Felix White:This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Fall flavours are waiting for you at Whole Foods Market. Cozy picks all through the store, like maple leaf cookies from 365 brand. Swing by the bakery for pumpkin cheesecake, here for a limited time, and pumpkin turmeric bread freshly baked every single day. Sip the season with 365 brand cinnamon spice coffee and pumpkin spice creamer. While you still can, spice up fall at Whole Foods Market.

0:33James Anderson:This January, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship takes over the ocean. The inaugural Brews Cruise sails from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Three straight days with pool deck bare knuckle fights in the Caribbean. Massive parties, beach events, DJs, cigars, tequila tastings, and nonstop action. The light-up reveal's coming soon. Cabins are disappearing fast, and the prices won't stay this low. Reserve your spot with just$200 down at BKFSEA.com. Hello and welcome to Tailenders. Hello and thank you for having us on Tailenders, your weekly loosely cricket-based podcast. Go well, cheers.

1:14James Anderson:This is GeForce Greg James. We have Sir James Anderson and soon-to-be Sir Felix White. Oh, yeah. Thank you for having me. So Wilmot Furson, the journalist, cricket journalist, did message me a couple of months ago saying, how's it going to feel to be the only tail ender who isn't knighted soon? I was like, yeah, I haven't thought about that, but that might be a genuine occurrence soon. You're imagining matching, I guess. Matching, of course, and yourself, Greg. I don't think, I think there's more of a chance that matching gets anything like that. Or maybe Sir Sharknado the movie. Sharky deserves for his work on Lewis Moody's film.

1:59James Anderson:That's true. Deserves a knighted for that. Well, I think in the coming months, this podcast might become the Lewis Moody fan podcast. Because Sharky's made this amazing documentary about his life and his career and his diagnosis of motor neurons disease. And I've just finished reading his book. He sent me a copy of his book. it's it's obviously beautifully written it's just but it's so uplifting so poignant so desperately sad in places but what an unbelievable man anyway sharky can we book we got to book him in to tell that'd be nice we'd that'd be great to have him on feels like the conversation i want is jimmy anderson and mad dog because there's there's a sort of venn diagram of of sport like of those to that they do cross over in certain ways the way they apply themselves to their to their sports and dedicate themselves to it anyway that's not a bit of shark he's nodding and he just written it down that is not necessarily for today because today we want to do a mark wood special mark announced his retirement from international cricket a couple of days ago he uh is a great friend of jimmy's he's a great friend of the podcast yeah he has had well when he was playing He was one of the best we've ever seen.

3:17James Anderson:He took 119 wickets in 38 tests. He won the Ashes, a 50 over World Cup, a T20 World Cup. There are just so many great Mark Wood spells that we can talk about in a second. Jimmy, I'd love to throw to you and ask how you heard about it. Were you in touch with Woody in the build up to the announcement? and I guess his latest injury has been quite a long stay out of the game. When did you first get wind that this might be it?

3:51Felix White:Well, I just found out on I want to say teletext then. Can you tell Benavit I can see her crawling around in the background as well.

4:00James Anderson:Felix can see you crawling around in the background. It would have just been easier for you just to walk out without crawling around. Just so she knows. I can see you half in shot crawling.

4:13Felix White:sorry jim yeah i found out on uh i was at lancashire and um we had the tv on it was on the news sky sports news and for some reason i did want to say teletext but yeah the ticker maybe it came into my head of how we always found out about sporting news back in the day. That would have been 3-4-1. 3-4-1 and then the headline and then 3-4-1 for the big story. 3-4-2 would have been the T20 score from yesterday.

4:50James Anderson:Yeah. More about the county championship. We're talking 3-4-7, 3-4-8. Right. It's a lovely tribute to the man, by the way. I think

5:04Felix White:I haven't spoke to him quite a bit over the last few months I think it was on the cards this injury is proving probably just one step too far for him, he's obviously had troubles throughout his career with injury and then tried to come back for the ashes in the winter and his knee flowed up again and he's had at least two elbow surgeries and a a number of other issues throughout his career. And I think when you do something that's so not normal, there's not many people that have ever bowled 97, 98 miles an hour in their career. So when you do something like that, it does put your body under a lot of stress.

5:49Felix White:And I think, unfortunately, it's got to that point where certainly test cricket's a no for him and the longer formats of the game. but maybe I'm still hopeful for him that he can play T20 in some description throughout the next couple of years. You know, he mentioned maybe playing for Durham in the Blast and maybe the odd franchise gig. But yeah, it's tough for him. I messaged him the other day and he said, hopefully we can catch up soon because, and he sent me the Ross Geller, I'm fine gif. That's pretty much how most of our conversations go. is communicating friends' gifts. Yeah. You know, I've loved seeing him on the TV, though, this summer.

6:33Felix White:I think he's definitely got a career in that because he's someone who... He obviously is a bit daft sometimes, but when you hear him speak seriously about cricket, he's very knowledgeable about the game and he's actually quite eloquent for someone from the north.

6:51Felix White:So I hope... Well, I'm sure that we'll be seeing more of him on either radio or TV in the future. But, you know, I think for him it would be a difficult time because he loves playing cricket, loves bowling fast and he loved test cricket as well. I know how proud he was to play for England in test matches, so to not be able to do that again for him, it would be fairly devastating. But, you know, he should be so proud of what he's achieved and hopefully there's still a bit more cricket in him.

7:23James Anderson:we talked a couple of podcasts ago about his work ethic and how much he valued playing for england and he talked about i'm just going to paraphrase him but me paraphrasing him last time which was that he just would bowl whenever the captain said right you're bowling and he would feel immensely proud and excited and even if he was knackered he'd be like yeah because this is all i ever wanted to do is just bowl for england and i've been watching like i'm sure all of us have been loads of his best bits and loads of clips and loads of his youtube spells and all the rest of it and the thing you know I had this theory that when he was a kid I think a cricket coach said whatever you do Woody just make sure you throw yourself into it all because he literally threw himself at the crease there is I don't think there's a bowler in cricket history who's thrown himself at a batter more than Mark Wood to the point where he would fall over quite regularly there are loads of great wickets I think there was that I think there was one was it Kawaja maybe the Kawaja Yorker when he basically rolled down the pitch afterwards because he just put every single bit of energy he had in his body behind that ball his work ethic Jim behind the scenes must have been extraordinary because what we saw on the pitch was mad what sort of things was he going through behind the scenes and what was he like to play with and to train with what was he like

8:46Felix White:we've actually been sort of rehab buddies quite a bit throughout our careers. And we've had various trips to, whether it's South Africa or I think we went to La Manga once. There's a picture on the post that we put up of us in swimming caps that was on a rehab trip to La Manga. But I can't tell you how much effort went into him playing, how much effort he put in. you know that constant management of your body so much gym work so much like regimented rehab or prehab if he was fit he'd be still working at the things that he needed to work at to make sure he could play and bowl as fast as he possibly could because i think with with a lot of fast bowlers you you from from the past you imagine them like quite robust and yeah quite big solid people but he is naturally quite sort of, I don't know what word to use here, I was thinking frail but he's not frail but you know like a

9:56James Anderson:sort of spindly he's not a thick set guy is he?

10:02Felix White:He's quite wiry naturally, he's not overly tall, he's got small hands

10:11James Anderson:James Anderson leads the tributes to Mark Lloyd.

10:17Felix White:But, you know, I just, he's not what, if you met him in the supermarket, you wouldn't think, oh, this guy bowls 95 miles. Totally. Totally. But he was, he made himself sort of robust. He made himself strong enough to cope with what he did. Do you think that's part of a, sorry, Jim, carry on. No, I was just going to say that he's up there with the hardest working players that I've ever played with you know and he would listen to every single thing that the physio or the science and medicine team would tell him this is this is what you need to do in the gym to get yourself fit and he would do it to the letter and and then more on top and he worked so hard just so that he could do what he loved doing.

11:06Do you think he got more injuries because he was bowling mid 90s and he wasn't a huge unit I don't know if there's any like but do you think he's just putting his body through unusual strain so I don't think I can think

11:17Felix White:of anyone that bowled that quick that small I don't think it matters how big you are right you know like Brett Lee bowled probably you know he did bowl a ball like 99.8 or something in the World Cup he regularly over 90 but he he again wasn't wasn't huge and he you know he picked up injuries I think it's just a natural thing for bowlers to pick up injuries. But he was someone who, some of his fastest spells, he bowled this one spell in St. Lucia, which was just the fastest thing that I've ever seen. He's bowling absolutely rapid, this Shimron Hetmeier left-hander from West Indies. I was at leg slip, I think, and we were miles back.

11:58Felix White:I can't tell you how far back. And then every time he'd bowl a short ball, Hetmeier would just get his neck out of the way and he had this big chain on and it would clip his grill of his helmet. The noise, you think, oh, he's nicked it, but he was miles away from it. So this was happening for like three or four overs, but it was the fastest spell that I've ever seen in Test cricket. I'd been on the field for. Yeah, it was just so special to watch. And I think it is because he knew that that was his point of difference. So he knew that every time he went out there, he wanted to bowl as fast as he could.

12:33Felix White:and I think then also when Joffre came into the squad they won't say that there was competition but there definitely was looking up at what was that speed what was that speed a little bit of competition there I mean you can see when you're watching Boll you can see the effort that was going through him if you freeze frame the delivery stride his front leg's so braced his ankles twisted out a little bit and there's so much stress going through all his body I think it's tough on anybody never mind you know no matter what size you are i don't think because when he started he had an unusually short run-up as well didn't he which sort of changed halfway through his career but that was when he first appeared it was he was so unusual because he was bowling back quick with really short run-up i remember feeling like it felt so strange but a small man was generating that pace from such a short run-up but that was an injury thing wasn't it but he was putting too much pressure yeah he's trying to sort of spread the load and and yes he lengthened his run-up to try and sort of offset some of that load he thought he was trying to do too much too quickly but he's someone like because of the way he bowled and his his body he would bowl quick off you know four or five paces when he was warming up he'd still be quicker than anyone else yeah just a incredible yeah incredible what he could do the thing that i always like definitely in the latter years of martwood even when he came back and did and that spell at old trafford in the in the recent home ashes but i always felt like it was quite it genuinely moving watching him bowl because he would come back for a short period and he would know at any moment something in his body was gonna break but he would still be like sprinting in giving everything and there was that sort of element you could feel the internal jeopardy of what he was doing but he was still giving it everything so i think it was like definitely the most moving bowler to watch but also that's because everyone really liked him as well but that sort of feeling that he knew that his time was running out and there would be another knee operation around the corner and he was still running in at that pace bowling 95 do you know what I mean that's what my lasting memory will be of Mark Wood actually just that feeling for him as he's running in that like

14:40James Anderson:commitment to the cause with him and as you're saying everyone rooting for him yeah exactly and just everyone really like you was you were so involved in a Mark Wood spell you felt like you were sort of on the pitch really yeah yeah come on you can do this did you ever face him jim in the nets much absolutely not do you ever face him in a game no no it wouldn't have happened so you wouldn't would you not have had to do that in the nets like just don't fancy it

15:09Felix White:no no they just would never pair up a with a quick bowler okay the other thing i'd say about him is like obviously his pace is what gets talked about but he was a sick or is a seriously skillful bowler you know could swing the ball both ways there's a spell edge baston i think against the west indies when he was reversing it you know really skillful bowler and and you know he could if he wanted to he could you know he could have gone into games and gone right i'm just gonna bowl within myself here 85 mile an hour and just swing it and and i'm sure he did do that at times and then but i i feel like when when a captain's got that some sort of special x-factor bowler they want them to use that skill all the time and he did get asked to do the the sort of bounce and stuff quite a lot and roughing people up because and bowl as fast as you can because yeah because that's what people want to watch that's what batters don't like facing and

16:03James Anderson:stuff like that well we need to get woody on at some point because he has got stories for days and we've got a great backstory with woody don't we because we obviously we shared in that post Jimmy alluded to there the uh him coming on and singing I've been Mark Wood for a long long time which Jimmy also sang live on Radio 5 Breakfast I'm um I was actually right yeah you sang Driftwood but the lyrics of Mark Wood live on 5 Live and we did the breakfast show but you were in like Manchester it was when we were doing the shows and we had a band in it was yet that it would have been like eight years ago but i think it was like a pre-ashes build-up or maybe pre-world cup build-up or something something like that someone wrote in with the lyrics to driftwood but with markwood i'm markwood he did yeah exactly will find you he walking on stage of us and being like i've been markwood for a long the whole crowd going you've been markwood for a long long time when i was looking back at that video earlier in the week to put it up i actually got really sad because him saying goodbye saying i've been markwood for a long time like you'll always be markwood bowling speedy bouncers yeah what a great man yeah that was do you know what as well that gave me an awful flashback to 2020 because that was our show in manchester in march in 2020 where we were joking about the pandemic yeah that was just before the pandemic was he that was that mark wood i thought that's alistair cook in the batting jacket was that we did both of them they were both yeah we really spoiled what a treat unbelievable really mark wood and alistair cook in the batting jacket that's kind of before people were doing podcast live yeah yeah and also that was like one last thing i'll say to pick ourselves up we just had mark wood come on just sing the line from from driftwood and markwood and then just walked straight off and then i saw him again and then i saw him again for like an hour and we were like trying to set up the thing the rhetoric but he just walked on like a hallucination just to be happy you can actually watch that whole thing if you want to watch the whole thing you search for tailenders uh markwood driftwood and you'll see the whole the whole video is there actually all right yeah maybe some yeah yeah glory years guys glory is get the old get the old guard back together yeah so go well woody we'd love to get you on for a chat at some point soon we need to talk to matching is matching around because we need to sort of explain uh mood a little bit as well because that was that's also deep tailenders folklore can we drop in we drop in us talking about that please sharky because that is that is probably the funniest minute of tailenders hit like after after mood happened when we're trying to describe it it's also it never appeared on the podcast it was a itself didn't but then we did a show immediately like the next day which is like which is pretty much just giggling for minutes but it's well yeah anyway imagine it'll be here in a second let's have a quick chat about the end of the county season well the nearing the end of the county championship season Felix's birthday at the Oval Oh yeah So nice That worked quite well didn't it You were panicking about that I'm just not very good For anyone out there that loves cricket You'll be listening to Taylor Lunders So you will love cricket But I'm not very good at your birthday For all the obvious sort of boring reasons That people aren't into their birthdays I've struggled with my birthday for a very long time Not done anything ever ever ever And I had this moment And I had this realisation if I count because because like my family's been coming to county cricket this year my nephew and niece because the county cricket is is emptier they were running around playing hide and seek really loved it and then I thought oh if I just got everyone whoever wants to come could just hang out in this massive empty stand you can bring kids if you want you can drink if you want and everyone will be looking out at the cricket like it was the sea that might be a nice day out and I felt like that was the best way I could have done my birthday so I recommend that for anyone out there for county cricket birthdays.

20:22And a big thank you to...

20:24James Anderson:A big thanks to Glamorgan as well for digging in and posting 612 to make sure that it went to the final day. And then Asa Tribe single-handedly saved my birthday. He batted for two days because 20 wickets fell on the first day. There was quite a lot of chat in the week leading up when I was sort of sending Felix the score going, oh, might need to get a contingency for Friday because they've both been bowled out for 110. So I drafted on my phone an apology to everyone that was coming, but the birthday's f***ed because 20 wickets have fallen on the first day. But Ace of Tribe must have had access to my iCloud because he then vassed on a picture of doing bits for two days and got it to day four and the birthday was had.

21:10So go old Ace of Tribe.

21:11James Anderson:Not sure how many bits it was doing when they scored 600. No flat road, wasn't it? It's doing a lot out there It's 612 for 8 Flattens out at the Oval As we all know Match in Tendulkar Go World Cheers Hello Can you hear me? Yeah we can hear you Can we I want to ask Jimmy a little bit about Lancashire I'm also cautious because I don't know how much you want to talk about it

21:43Felix White:I don't really want to talk about it Greg okay

21:46James Anderson:well can I just can I offer up the fact that we love you thanks mate and everything's going to be okay yeah okay cheers and now and also good chat good chat and also you know I know you won't you won't like this but well bowled this season yeah it was great took a lot of wickets um I know that won't mean anything to you because you want your team to win I get that is Jimmy Anderson, but I'm just saying, it's worth pointing out, you're still bowling amazing areas. You are. On to, it's awkward now, mood... Can we do a quiz about the Canaanse Championship? Do you want to do that now? I was just going to say, imagine how you're feeling after the international retirement of mood...

22:36Wow, yeah. Great guy, great cricketer, and great to mine the mood... company for the last six seven years so he had it all and he will be missed i actually think because there'll be so

22:51James Anderson:many people listening who won't understand the reference can you explain the reference well deep deep deep into lockdown we tried to host a gigantic quiz which i prepared for for on instagram stories on stories on jimmy's instagram stories yes which he got locked out of um and i spent weeks preparing for this because i thought this could be this could be huge it was huge just not in the way you thought exactly he had everything i had guests and one part of it was a card trick that i prepared where i was gonna i was gonna invite mark wood into the into the quiz so i said i'll stop this card pulled the card out and it had mark wood written on the card what i didn't realize on instagram it mirrors it so it flips it upside down and unbelievably mark wood backwards and reverse reads mood i think and upside down you're holding it upside down so upside down backwards and reverse um i think that does exist there's a video of it it does exist somewhere so for then there does weeks name months afterwards mood became a thing i think i think it trended top of top of twitter at the time mood during covid didn't jim did martin just suddenly he started texting you saying why am i getting millions of people right yeah yeah i think he's

24:10Felix White:i think he still gets the odd reference to it as well it's just an unfortunate i also thought i was i was thinking because we're about to do a quiz honestly for some reason i feel like mark wood is gonna host a quiz he'd be great what now quiz show tv quiz show like a bbc 230 yeah yeah oh my god I think it's a great shout.

24:35James Anderson:Yeah. He could be. He'd be fantastic. That could be his thing, yeah. Wipeout or something, yeah. I actually think he could take over Ramesh doing the weakest link. Yeah, nice. He'd be quite good at the chase. Yeah. He could do with Brandi Walsh, easy.

24:48Felix White:What about pointless with matching on the laptop?

24:51James Anderson:Oh, I love that. It's going to need some brave commissioners. It's going to need some brave, brave commissioners, but I believe in them. He'd be a great host. That's what I was going to say. it's gonna be sad for cricket not to have Mark Wood around but then I've realized we're gonna have him around much more hopefully yeah definitely yeah so he'll be he'll be actually at the test matches now so the on on fields loss is the off fields gain pretty much found thank you so much the um can I just quickly say because I'm remembering it like I was so that mood I was for a week i just i couldn't even sleep i was still laughing so much i was like i was like compulsing in bed every single night that is that is literally the most i've laughed for longest in my whole life even funny because we were all dressed up and you were wearing a tuxedo i was wearing a tux i think you had a kind of furry coat on like a kind of pimp coat you did yeah there was like some sort i think you're trying to dress like i think you're a better pimp coat on same pimp coat again

25:56anyway

25:57James Anderson:pimp coat mood let's there's your title for the episode Sharky please please find a minute from that episode Sharky that is well worth a rehash and we'll drop it in here