Back Garden Cricket Club

More than 40 years ago, Broadcasters Whispering Bob Harris (Radio 1, 2 and The Old Grey Whistle Test) and Jon Briggs (Radio 2, 5, The Weakest Link and the Original Voice of Siri) played cricket in Bob’s back garden.

There were homemade rules, magnificent teas, balls regularly dispatched into next door’s garden... and for reasons nobody can entirely explain Bob kept the scorebooks.

He still has them.

In this first episode we discover where it all began. What happens when you reopen the records of a cricket career you’d completely forgotten you had? And were the peculiar rules of Bob’s garden unique, or did every garden in Britain have its own?

That’s what The Back Garden Cricket Club intends to discover, as we begin compiling the definitive Laws of Back Garden Cricket: the ones the MCC somehow failed to include.

Welcome to the club. You probably joined years ago.

What do a farmer's handkerchief, a petrol lawnmower, a thrupenny bit and Test Match Special have in common?

The answer is Jonathan Agnew.

Aggers joins broadcasters Bob Harris and Jon Briggs to trace the journey from childhood games in a Lincolnshire garden to Lord's, Leicestershire, England and the commentary box. Along the way we'll talk about Peter Lever, Brian Johnston, Geoffrey Boycott, Ben Stokes, broadcasting, bowling, battered Slazenger bats and the glorious madness of back garden cricket.

Because every Test career starts somewhere... and it's usually just in front of the watering can.

Don't forget - we're compiling the as yet unwritten laws of Back Garden Cricket - please let us know yours in the comments section.