There’s a saying at the Yarras - that if it happens once it’s an event, twice it’s a tradition. The same applies to Craig Serjeant Day at Cricket Et Al. It was on 1 November last year, the great man’s birthday, that Pete, Sam and I nervously moved the site to a paid footing, with the result that today we find ourselves number 13 on Substack’s sports bestseller list. Some way to go catch up with Kareem’s juggernaut, but cop that Bill and Doug!
Anyway, Craig Serjeant Day looms again, and, as mentioned earlier, you now have one more week to subscribe at the original bargain price of $20pcm or $100pa. Because at midnight on 1 November we’ll be reluctantly turning up the dial to $30pcm and $124pa, in honour of the great man’s highest Test score. It’s an Ashes summer, and in a big country it costs money to put two journos on the road, even when they’re sleeping on each other’s couches and travelling with their own muesli.
If you’re an existing subscriber, just to confirm, don’t worry - nothing changes. You’ll have your current rates for as long as you continue renewing. Which is a Substack thing and a bit weird but, on your part, a wise investment! But if you’re still hiding in the free subscriber undergrowth of Cricket Et Al, this next week is your last chance to upgrade before the price rise. Sign up now for the following:
The opportunity to read every word we write, rather than the truncated passages outside the paywall;
The freedom to have at it in the comments section, and to join in the chatroom banter;
The chance to buy my forthcoming true crime title, Who Is Wallace?, available only from my kitchen table from next week (details to follow);
A stake in Samsa’s survival.
Next week’s pretty busy for this half of Cricket Et Al, by the way: you can find me here, here and here. But don’t miss out this final opportunity to join us on our Cricket Et Al Ashes journey for cheap. And tell ‘em Serj sent ya.








Pete, Gideon and Sam,
Perhaps another way to describe Cricket et al’s Substack ranking status might be “The leading cricket focused Substack” rather than merely “13th on the Substack sports list”.
Whilst acknowledging that you are of journalistic persuasion, with marketing chops well down the list of possible skill sets, even a mere tradey like myself might have grasped the opportunity for a little less self effacing promotion.
Just saying.
GH, just a polite heads up that non-descriptive links like ‘here’ or ‘click here’ aren’t very accessible to blind and vision impaired readers who use assistive technologies like text to voice screen readers. More detail on this article, if you’re interested https://slowburnweb.medium.com/dont-click-here-do-this-instead-94e422de4c56