Howzat? The Story of the Cricket Tea

Chef and broadcaster Romy Gill heads to the pavilion to explore cricket's relationship with food. She discovers that the supposedly British institution of the cricket tea was in fact a tradition imported from Australia in the 1880s. She visits Lord's - the Home of Cricket - and is given access to the kitchens to watch tea being prepared as well as receiving a tour of the Lord's museum to look through their culinary archives. She's made to feel welcome by the BBC Test Match Special team and reminisces over her own childhood cricket teas growing up in West Bengal in India. Romy explores the health of the cricket tea at a club level and heads to Stainland Cricket Club near Halifax in West Yorkshire to meet the inspirational Trish Wood who has helped bring cricket teas back to her club and John Fuller of Cricket Yorkshire who devised a competition to find the best cricket tea in the county.Robin Markwell reports from Stoke Gifford in South Gloucestershire on a decision by cricket clubs around Bristol who voted to no longer make cricket teas compulsory in their league after the pandemic.Presented by Romy Gill and produced by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio in Bristol with thanks to the BBC Test Match Special team.