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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 221: The Jackets of Paul Heaton with Elis & The Rock" 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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 Bonus Club, where Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero have finished discussing Michael Owen, ultramarathons and the finer points of railway travel, and are free to return to the important business of watching more ridiculous sporting clips. This week, Elis has found some rather lovely gymnastics assistance, Steff takes us back into the wonderful world of old television with Jack Charlton making a programme about shooting things, and Mike heads across the Atlantic for a bit of Canadian Football League action. And somewhere along the way, we're introduced to the concept of **the Ronaldo of pigeon shooting**. Whether that's Cristiano or the Brazilian one is a question that probably deserves a considerably more serious discussion than it's likely to receive here. Clips Elis: Gymnastics Help https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdEqtZlCBXH/?xtok=aDk2aXN5bGVsa3Rt Steff: Jack Charlton Makes a TV Show About Shooting Things https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeZwq92MfWW/?srtk=MWxsZGF6MzJ6Ymlv Mike: Canadian Football League https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Jegnpyc4w/?mibextid=wwXIfr Gymnastics. Jack Charlton. Canadian football. Pigeon shooting. Four perfectly reasonable subjects for a sports podcast. Possibly not all in the same episode. As ever, Bonus Club is where the conversations get a little looser, the tangents get longer and the three of us end up somewhere nobody could reasonably have predicted. Thanks, as always, for subscribing and supporting The Socially Distant Sports Bar. Enjoy!

Welcome to the second half of this week's Socially Distant Sports Bar with Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero. This week, Mike's documentary selection takes us back into the life of one of the podcast's most enduring figures. Michael Owen. Yes, that Michael Owen. The man who has already inspired an entire Distant Pod spin-off is back in our lives, and this time we're getting to know him rather better. Documentary of the WeekMike: Meet The Owens Mike has chosen Meet The Owens, the Prime Video documentary series following former England striker and Ballon d'Or winner Michael Owen, his family and their horse racing business. Away from football, the series gives us a look at Michael's home life, his ambitions in racing and the rather different world he's built since hanging up his boots. And the big question for Elis, Mike and Steff is whether spending more time with the man himself might actually change their opinions. After years of Michael Owen's Movie Club, are we finally starting to understand him? Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship? And, most importantly, does the Movie Club now need a new name? Almost certainly not. https://link.amazon/B0d1l7kgQ Book of the WeekSteff: Running Up That Hill by Vassos Alexander Steff heads in an altogether more physically demanding direction with Running Up That Hill, Vassos Alexander's account of the extraordinary world of ultra-distance running. From mountain races to the legendary Spartathlon, Alexander explores why otherwise sensible people voluntarily sign up to run distances that most of us wouldn't particularly fancy driving. It's a book about endurance, obsession, adventure and the peculiar satisfaction of discovering just how far your body can go. And, naturally, the sort of conversations that follow when someone who enjoys running ridiculous distances brings a book about other people running even more ridiculous distances to a podcast. https://link.amazon/B03URJdSO Michael Owen and ultramarathons. Two very different kinds of endurance. That's it for the regular feed this week. If you want Part 3, The Ronaldo of Pigeon Shooting, it's available exclusively to Distant Pod Bonus Club subscribers on Apple Podcasts, along with early and advert-free episodes every Tuesday. Thanks for listening. 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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.

Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero are back in their respective studios after their trip to Clapham, and there's still plenty to discuss from their adventures in London. While Elis was bolting across the capital to get back for childcare, Steff was making an equally urgent dash for the toilet. Meanwhile, Mike was enjoying a period of sobriety that lasted right up until he spotted a pint of Madri. Several pints later, he's holding court on a train and somehow managing to steal a job from Elis as Great Western Railway's Cymru Connector. A remarkable career change, given that he was supposed to be having a quiet weekend. There's also an extensive discussion about erotic fiction before the boys finally remember they're supposed to be making a sports podcast. Finally, some sport! Mike brings in some rugby referees who might benefit from reconsidering their approach to the job, Elis has NFL legend Jason Kelce trying his hand at rugby, and Steff finds former Premier League striker Papiss Cissé taking Sunday league football rather more seriously than anyone expected. ClipsMike: (Some) Rugby Referees https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeXEW7SirYX/?mdxt=OHIzbmI2ZjJ2NjZu Elis: Jason Kelce Plays Rugby https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeXFVbKjYEf/?cplk=d3c4YjRseHZtZm0y Steff: Papiss Cissé Takes Sunday League Too Seriously https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeZSoW2Jeu8/?rpxt=NG1lbHFmZHpob2gy Trains. Toilets. Erotic fiction. Papiss Cissé. Another perfectly normal week at The Socially Distant Sports Bar. Part 2, That's My Sense of Humour, will be out on Friday, featuring a documentary about an old friend of the podcast and a book about running an extraordinarily long way. And if you want the entire episode early and advert-free, including the exclusive Part 3, subscribe to Distant Pod Bonus Club on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening. 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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 302: Piccalilli's Like Pegging" 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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.

We took The Socially Distant Sports Bar to Clapham for The Cheerful Earful Festival. We had a lovely afternoon. We invited our subscribers to send us some questions. And approximately half of you asked about The Race. Honestly. We can't take you anywhere. Welcome to a special Bonus Club Q&A with Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero, rounding off our live-show week. This is your chance to hear the boys answering questions from the people who know the podcast better than almost anyone — for better or worse. There's plenty of chat, the usual collection of tangents and, of course, the ongoing fascination with one particular race that apparently refuses to disappear from Distant Pod folklore. Thanks to everyone who sent questions, everyone who came to the show and everyone who continues to support us. And a particularly heartfelt thank you to the roughly 50% of you who managed not to ask about The Race.

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. ClipsKate: 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 ALERTWe’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 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 ALERTWe’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 ALERTWe’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 Bonus Club, where Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero have finished discussing the sporting development of young footballers and the extraordinary career of Larry Csonka, and can finally get back to the important stuff. How apples reproduce. Quite how we arrived at that particular subject is probably best discovered by listening. There are also three more clips to enjoy. As ever, the clips are really just an excuse for another round of stories, opinions, unlikely connections and conversations that probably wouldn't survive a producer with a firmer grasp of editorial discipline. Clips Elis: Malta https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeJMxh-HIIR/?stkn=MWx0NHN5cm5zc3Z4Yg== Mike: Golf For Everyone https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd6rb7ZRVLW/?stkn=ODcwOTczc25xYzR3 Steff: Elfyn Evans https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/videos/c5rmyz3g1pxvo Golf. Rally driving. Apple Sex. Three things that have probably never appeared together in a podcast description before. Thanks, as always, for subscribing and supporting The Socially Distant Sports Bar. Your support allows us to keep making the show, recording the extra conversations and exploring whatever peculiar subject happens to come up next. Enjoy!

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 WeekElis: 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 WeekMike: 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 ALERTWe’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. ClipsMike: 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 ALERTWe’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.

BONUS CLUB: I'M NOT THE BAD GUY Welcome to Bonus Club, where Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero have finished discussing Jimmy Tarbuck's approach to television and Pep Guardiola's approach to football, and can finally get back to the important business of talking about whatever they fancy. Three clips. Three completely different starting points. And absolutely no guarantee that any of them will still be relevant ten minutes later. As ever, this is where the conversation gets a little looser, the tangents get longer and someone inevitably finds themselves having to explain why they're not the bad guy. Clips Steff: Best Instagram Running Account https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcTtddkNvPg/?stkn=aTBsZXl1c3gzcnBu Elis: Charlie Nodding https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdygXQgAbTy/?stkn=c2NrM2pwNWJ5b3Y0 Mike: Rashid https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcrFLrWMDep/?igsi=dDA5ajdyYmQ2OXI3 Running. Nodding. Rashid. And someone insisting they're not the bad guy. Thanks, as always, for subscribing and supporting The Socially Distant Sports Bar. It's your support that allows us to keep making these episodes and sharing the conversations that might otherwise never make it out of the studio. Enjoy!

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 293: George Lewis" 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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 this week's Socially Distant Sports Bar with Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero. This week we're taking a trip back to the golden age of television game shows, before heading into the tactical revolution that has changed football from the Champions League to the lowest reaches of the non-league pyramid. Two very different approaches to sport. One involving meticulous tactical planning. The other involving Jimmy Tarbuck and a set of rules nobody appears to understand. Documentary of the Week (Sort Of)Steff: Full Swing In place of the usual documentary, Steff has unearthed an absolute gem from the golden age of British television: Jimmy Tarbuck's Full Swing. It's a glorious car crash of a golf-based, general knowledge-adjacent game show, featuring celebrity contestants, questionable production decisions and a format whose rules the audience are apparently expected to work out for themselves as the programme unfolds. If the idea of Jimmy Tarbuck presiding over a golf quiz that appears to have been designed during a particularly long lunch doesn't make you want to watch it immediately, we're not sure this is the podcast for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svRbCgDm8w&t=45s Book of the WeekElis: The Spectre of Pep — How Guardiola Haunts Modern Football by Jon Mackenzie Elis brings in Jon Mackenzie's fascinating examination of Pep Guardiola's influence on modern football. From his tactical philosophy and obsession with controlling space to the way teams across Europe's biggest leagues have adopted versions of his approach, the book explores how one manager's ideas have fundamentally changed the way the game is played. And it's not just the elite. From Manchester City to the lower reaches of non-league football, everybody now seems determined to play out from the back, regardless of whether the centre-half is entirely comfortable with the idea. Has Guardiola made football better? Or has he simply made everyone believe there's only one correct way to play it? Plenty for Elis, Mike and Steff to get stuck into. https://link.amazon/B0aGXHEoU Jimmy Tarbuck and Pep Guardiola. Two men who have approached the organisation of sport in very different ways. Thanks for listening. And if you want more from The Socially Distant Sports Bar, including exclusive episodes and extra content, join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/distantpod 🛍️ NEW MERCH ALERTWe’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.