The Socially Distant Sports Bar

We're back at The Cheerful Earful Festival in Clapham for the second half of our live show, and this time we've brought in someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Kate Mason is back!
The brilliant journalist, broadcaster, podcaster and previous Socially Distant Sports Bar guest joins Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero for more sporting clips, stories and the sort of conversations that are almost certainly better conducted in front of a paying audience.
Kate brings in the magnificent Shane Williams and a reminder of what happens when England football fans discover Oasis.
Meanwhile, Mike has uncovered some boxing involving Bailey and Judith.
If you haven't heard Part 1, go back and start there. You'll also discover why Mike might not be the most popular man in certain Edinburgh pubs.
Clips
Kate: Shane Williams
https://youtu.be/IRaTsrmzhPI?is=3lOFE_0uBltBptN1
Kate: England Wonderwall
https://youtube.com/shorts/VwM_jKnmqHU?is=5rkDEmo8BSBiiA1-
Mike: Bailey and Judith Boxing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdmloGWxld1/?stkn=bzVpN2QwOGZvanQx
That's it for the regular feed this week.
But there's more!

We've kept back a bonus Q&A for our subscribers, including a quite remarkable number of questions about The Race.

You can hear it through Distant Pod Bonus Club on Apple Podcasts, or find more exclusive Distant Pod content at:
https://www.patreon.com/distantpod
Thanks to everyone who came to Clapham, to the Cheerful Earful team and, of course, to the brilliant Kate Mason.

🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERT
We’ve launched a brand new merch store — mugs, hoodies, prints and more!
If you fancy supporting the pod that way, head here 👇
🛒 sdsb2025.myshopify.com

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Welcome to the first half of our live show from The Cheerful Earful Festival in Clapham, available early and advert-free for Apple subscribers.

Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero are back on stage, where Mike has a slightly awkward Edinburgh double-booking to explain.

Once that's dealt with, there's Mike Ditka, some questionable half-marathon preparation and the usual amount of nonsense.
Mike: Mike Ditka
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTrMqi7Di6m/?igsh=MWQ1dXJqaTA2MDlmag==
Elis: Half-Marathon, Half-Cut
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeL1cYwxBAb/?stkn=cnJ4ZDRyYXZlNm41
Part 2, featuring special guest Kate Mason, is also available on Friday, along with the exclusive Bonus Club Q&A on Apple

🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERT
We’ve launched a brand new merch store — mugs, hoodies, prints and more!
If you fancy supporting the pod that way, head here 👇
🛒 sdsb2025.myshopify.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pint-Sized Distant Pod.
We've been back through our archive of episodes and we've selected our favourite stories, anecdotes and funny bits.
If you're new to the pod, then feel free to use these as a jump off point to find your way around our earlier episodes.
This clip is taken from "Episode 152: A Circle Thank"

🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERT
We’ve launched a brand new merch store — mugs, hoodies, prints and more!
If you fancy supporting the pod that way, head here 👇
🛒 sdsb2025.myshopify.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the second half of this week's Socially Distant Sports Bar, where Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero turn their attention to the documentary and book of the week.
This time we're travelling back to 1988, when England's future football stars were being moulded at a residential school in Shropshire, before heading across the Atlantic to meet a man who helped create the only perfect season in modern NFL history.
Two very different approaches to sporting excellence. Both involving a considerable amount of shouting, presumably.

Documentary of the Week
Elis: 1988 — Life at the FA School of Excellence
Elis has uncovered a wonderful piece of BBC archive footage from 1988, following a group of 14-year-old footballers arriving at the FA's School of Excellence at Lilleshall.
More than 400 promising youngsters are offered trials, but just 16 are selected for two years of intensive football training, schooling and life away from home.
Under the watchful eye of FA Technical Director Dave Sexton, the boys are being prepared for careers in professional football at a time when the modern academy system was still a distant dream.
It's a fascinating glimpse into football development in the late 1980s, complete with the hairstyles, training gear, coaching methods and extraordinary confidence that only British television of that period could capture.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=viEnIRCR0hU&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1HQg%3D%3D&ra=m

Book of the Week
Mike: Head On by Larry Csonka
Mike heads to America with Head On, the autobiography of legendary Miami Dolphins fullback Larry Csonka.
A Hall of Famer, two-time Super Bowl champion and one of the toughest players of his generation, Csonka was at the heart of the Dolphins' extraordinary undefeated 1972 season.
But this is about considerably more than American football.
Csonka recounts his complicated relationship with legendary coach Don Shula, the personalities and excesses of the NFL in the 1970s, and a life away from sport that was frequently every bit as eventful as anything that happened on the field.
It's a story of toughness, ambition, larger-than-life characters and an era when professional athletes appeared to live by an entirely different set of rules.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-Memoir-Larry-Csonka/dp/1637743254

Sixteen teenage footballers in Shropshire. One enormous American footballer in Miami. And three middle-aged Welshmen discussing how it all went.
Thanks for listening.

For even more from The Socially Distant Sports Bar, including extra episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/distantpod

🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERT
We’ve launched a brand new merch store — mugs, hoodies, prints and more!
If you fancy supporting the pod that way, head here 👇
🛒 sdsb2025.myshopify.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another week at The Socially Distant Sports Bar, where Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero once again tackle the big sporting issues of the day. Or at least watch some clips and see where the conversation takes them.

This week we're heading across the Atlantic for a bit of ice hockey, digging out some tennis rackets that should probably have stayed in the garage, and bringing together two of football's greats.

Mike takes us to NHL opening night, where the Americans once again demonstrate that nobody does sporting spectacle quite like them.

Steff has found Andy and Jamie Murray attempting to play tennis with some decidedly old-fashioned rackets, proving just how much technology has changed the game — and how difficult it is to look like a world-class tennis player when your equipment belongs in a museum.

And Elis brings us Roy Keane and Zinedine Zidane. Two footballing legends.

Clips
Mike: NHL Opening Night
https://x.com/Buccigross/status/2105017215724798320
Steff: Andy and Jamie Murray Hitting With Old Rackets
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hVnyflisJN8
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oJdm7PL-GcI
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bd-bTgqOPHs
Elis: Keane and Zidane
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeJ9KWQsF7T/?hl=en-gb
Ice hockey. Wooden rackets. Roy Keane. Zinedine Zidane.
Blood and guts. And probably quite a lot of nonsense.
Thanks for listening.

For even more from The Socially Distant Sports Bar, including extra episodes, bonus content and everything else from the Distant Pod universe, join us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/distantpod

🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERT
We’ve launched a brand new merch store — mugs, hoodies, prints and more!
If you fancy supporting the pod that way, head here 👇
🛒 sdsb2025.myshopify.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.