Spending the evening with Boycott and Aggers at Birmingham Symphony Hall - review
Arriving in a wet and windy Birmingham city centre on Sunday evening, the sunny excitement of summer seemed like a distant memory.
So it was comforting to be transported back to this year's glorious international cricket season in the company of commentary legends Jonathan 'Aggers' Agnew and Sir Geoffrey Boycott.
Mixing anecdotes and banter with commentary and serious discussion, the Test Match Special heavyweights spent two hours entertaining Birmingham Symphony Hall on Sunday evening as they helped raise funds for the Professional Cricketers' Association.
Excitement built before Aggers entered the stage, as his famous commentary of the super over finale of England's World Cup win was played to the audience.
Surely the elation of that July day at Lords would be the pinnacle of the summer?
Enter Ben Stokes, Headingley, Jack Leach, a Test match miracle and more broadcasting brilliance from Aggers and the TMS team.
Reliving those moments got the audience's spines tingling from the off, but also set the tone for a laughter-filled evening as Aggers did what he does best and took the mick.
TMS producer Adam Mountford and Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon were among the early targets (for face-pulling and ball-dropping respectively) but, as ever, it was newly-knighted Boycott who took the most flak.
During the first half Boycott was effectively the interviewee, with Aggers guiding discussions on England's summer, the 79-year-old's Test career and how to cope with express pace (if you're Agnew the answer is by walking off pretending you've edged it).
The second half was led by questions from the audience during which we learned that yes, Boycott had once deliberately run someone out (his own brother) and no, Aggers doesn't know where Walsall or Lichfield are.
Throughout the evening the chat was complemented by footage and photos dug up from the archive, including Boycott's 100th hundred, classic Agnew pranks and the moment Boycott himself was deliberately run out by Ian Botham.
With the talk taking place at the same time as the draft for The Hundred, Aggers broke the news that Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali had signed for Birmingham Phoenix before asking who was planning to watch the new tournament live.
Answer: not many.
But after two hours of nostalgia for 2019's brilliant cricketing summer it wasn't a new 100-ball format we were all left pining for; it was for our next dose of Test match cricket and the return of Test Match Special.
Boycott and Aggers' final date of their autumn tour is at Hull City Hall on Monday October 21 while Test Match Special will return for England's upcoming tour of New Zealand.
