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Brian:Hello, and welcome to reports from Arbroath, a brand new series of podcasts bringing you exclusive, and we hope very entertaining and quirky interview with sports people.
Sean:It's been a really interesting series that you put together with some really fantastic guests.
Brian:Oh, there's some really lovely people in sports, aren't there? And they love chatting about not just their own careers, but sport in general. And, I'd like to I'm sure we both like to thank all our guests for, being part of the first series of reports from our growth. We've got guests from Australia, from South Wales, from Cornwall, plenty from the West Midlands, Jim Trouton, a couple of lovely podcasts from him. Many thanks to Jim, and many thanks to everybody that's joined us, for the first
Sean:podcast series, I really saw this as an opportunity as a way to break away from newspapers or YouTube or club communications. We've both worked for professional sports clubs before to do something independent, giving the guests the opportunity to tell their story on a platform where there's not a club communications manager there or it's not an official promotion.
Brian:I think there is a gap to fill for sports fans, isn't there? Because, I mean, I've worked for a big sports club and also for a long time in newspapers, and both of those, have their limitations, don't they? Newspapers, space limitations, there's only a certain amount you can say, a certain amount of room you've got, and as you say, if you are working for a club, get great access to people, but obviously you can write some good or you can produce some good in-depth stuff, but sometimes the club don't want you to go into all areas, which is understandable to a degree, but we can go into all areas and the interviewees that we, that have been good enough to share their time with us for this series have been really honest and, it's been fascinating to speak to the likes of, Liam Norwell, Tim Ambrose, Tim down there in Australia. One of my favorites as well, think, of the series with respect to all the interviewees who are all great, but Steve Agrizovich, which fused together his love of cricket with, of course, his immense career in football, and, so many people, of course, are very much in love with both sports and follow both sports.
Brian:Another real favorite of mine, have to say, is the long chat we had with Alan Jones, former Glamorgan, batsman for twenty six years and a terrific guy as well as a terrific batsman who really should have played for England and some of his memories from over the years, partly because they're just really interesting in their own right, but of course it is a world that has been lost because sport has changed so dramatically in cricket. Possibly most of all, of all sports has been transformed in the last twenty five years, so yes, some fascinating stuff. Equally so, with our very first one from Molly Hannan, Dolby, that's a lovely chat from Molly, just looking into somehow the precarious nature of life as a cricketer as well. Great life being a pro cricketer, but also quite insecure at times. You're only there for the length of your next contract and some really interesting stuff from Ollie as well.
Sean:Especially with cricket becoming more of a franchise sport as well, where you're bouncing around from competition to competition, country to country. Ollie's just had a testimonial year or a benefit year. Will we ever see that again? That's something he touches on, you know, to have a player to have a longevity with a county. When we see county players for ten, fifteen years, he might be one of the last of the good time guys.
Brian:That's an interesting call and one that Ollie speaks about, very interesting as well, because of course Ollie not long ago stepped up to be chairman of the PCA, so he's really invested in the welfare of county cricketers, both current ones and former ones. So, yeah, that's a really interesting chat. Another chat that I really enjoyed was with Ian Clark about Birmingham City, their resurgence. Clarke was there as a player, of course, when things weren't so great, although he did subsequently lead them to the, to Wembley glory and a promotion. He was also part of a squad that used to have turn up at St Andrew's on a Friday afternoon hoping that they'd be paid.
Brian:Blues have been through one or two dips, haven't they? But all going well at St Andrew's now and hopefully that'll continue.
Sean:And just going back to what you said about Ollie at the PCA and looking after younger players, our chat with Jimmy Walker also touched on that too. What he is going on to now in a different way to Ollie Hallandarby, he's trying to look out for young pros and help guys that maybe don't make it past academy levels or don't get through trials and try to help young professionals to kick onto different clubs, different opportunities, or in some cases, careers. And I didn't see that conversation coming from Jimmy to be honest and it was a really interesting listen.
Brian:Well Wacker of course has created his foundation, the JW23 Foundation to support both ex players and also players whose careers end early for various reasons, so either through injury or just because they they get rejected by their clubs. There's an awful lot of footballers that come into that category. But, yeah, Jimmy lived a a very colorful life during his playing career as he's, as he shares with us, but also he's now really trying to give something back with his foundation. And and, again, the the Jimmy Walker interview like the Ollie Hannan Dolby one, it just shines a light on how professional football and cricket, they're great careers, they're great things to aspire to be, but my word, it's not all glamour.
Sean:It's a beautiful way to end this teaser, think, so look out for the series as we publish week by week, and also check out our website where both Brian and I will be publishing a series of blogs, thoughts, musings, rants and everything else in between.
Brian:And thank you to everyone over the years that always followed reports from our growth when I was tweeting and blogging for the Birmingham Post and Mail reports from our growth are back. Reports from our growth
Sean:is an Orion Creative Services production. To listen to more episodes, to read our blog or to join our mailing list, please visit reportfromarbros.com.
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