Happy Birthday Bear Necessities!

This week’s episode of Bear Necessities - the world’s greatest podcast about the Coventry Bears - is a special one, and not just because they get to talk about a Bears win…it also marks their first birthday!

The independent show - which is hosted by Bears fans Dave Musson and Craig Cathcart - started life back in July 2017 with an episode recorded right after a home defeat to the North Wales Crusaders.

Fast-forward 12 months and the duo have put out 40 shows covering wins, defeats and a bunch of specials that help tell the stories of various parts of the club.

Bear Necessities has also been a great place to find a special guest or two. In the show’s first year, they’ve been joined by BBC Rugby League Correspondent Dave Woods, Great Britain record caps holder Garry Schofield, historian Tony Collins and Widnes Vikings legend Just Sorensen - amongst others.

In their first year together, the podcast has covered the Bears’ League 1 shield campaign in 2017, before telling the stories behind the club’s 20th anniversary season so far this year, from the season opener against reigning Super League champions Leeds Rhinos, through their record-breaking Challenge Cup run to the recent Summer Battle of the Beasts against Bradford Bulls, with everything else in between.

On this week’s show, Dave and Craig look back on the Bears’ 20-18 victory over Hemel Stags as well as taking time to pick out some of their favourite moments from the last 12 months.

Dave Musson, Bear Necessities co-host and producer, said: “This first year of the podcast has been an absolute blast and has flown by. We’ve been incredibly lucky to be joined by some excellent guests and we’re really grateful to the Coventry Bears for giving us such great access and being so accommodating. We’ve also been overwhelmed at the amount of support we’ve had from the wider rugby league family - we have plenty of people listen to us every week who aren’t Bears fans but want to know what the club is up to.

“We started the show to try and help boost the profile of the club and share some of the amazing stories that the Bears have to tell, as well as give fans an insight into their club. I think we’ve done that pretty well so far - here’s to many more birthdays!”

You can find out more about the podcast - and listen to all episodes - on their website. You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts and YouTube, and follow them on Twitter.