Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Bats => Topic started by: toenails97 on August 21, 2012, 02:22:12 PM
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So after seeing a lot of gray nicolls oblivions on here I decided to purchase one. I went for the players oblivion, it's not the best looking bat with 12 grains a bit of heartwood but a few butter fly stains however of the mallet it is amazing..... Much better than my nitro carbo. The edges aren't the biggest however I'm not that bothered as I'm not looking to edge them ;). It weighs 2.9 but it pics up amazingly more like a 2.6-2.7. All in all I'm very happy with my purchase and owzat cricket were very helpfull in ordering me one in from gray nicolls. If you have any questions just ask! Enjoy the pics:D
(http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u419/toenails97/f9d2242d.jpg)
(http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u419/toenails97/7dcf1739.jpg)
(http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u419/toenails97/5d31b215.jpg)
(http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u419/toenails97/20deab3d.jpg)
(http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u419/toenails97/1937f7a8.jpg)
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Yeh as I said it looks bad, I'd probably of said no more than a 4star however it performs very well so I'm happy :D
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Once there's a few cherrys on there the blemishes will be covered up anyway so i dont mind as long as it hits me a few 50's and 100's haha ;)
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Glad you like it - Beauty in the eye of the beholder... :)
That's still quite a mucky blade for £200+
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Yeh it's quite an ugly blade haha
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If it performs, it doesn't matter ;)
Great quote from the late Art Arfons, one time world land speed record holder, on seeing Noble's Thrust II land speed attempt vehicle.
'I thought, "My God, that's the ugliest car I've ever seen" - but do you know, the faster it went, the more beautiful it got!'
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Yeh there was a pic of Ricky ponting using a kahuna players and it was ugly but it was good enough for one of the best batters in recent years
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I suppose this particular bat probably came from India originally so maybe it's just a case of GN still trying to enforce their values on their new workforce? ;) For £200+ that's not what I would expect.
A bat is for hitting things with when all is said and done though, if it hits things well it's doing it's job well. :D
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I guess it proves Owzat don't hand pick their bats, but then I guess most of us knew that already...
I am inclined to agree with Nick on the GN grains - had a couple this year that I thought were quite disappointing, and looked a grade or two below what they were supposed to be...
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Yeh I'm actually debating sending it back
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But don't know as it feels good and responds well but looks like a 4star .....
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For the money you paid in really disappointed for you .
I rember when we were pmd each other you were really looking forward to it .
Asad at uzi would of given you a brill bat for that it mat from h4l would of been great from past experiences ,
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Without being unkind, id be seriously pissed off if I paid 200 quid for that bat.
Id return that if you are dead set on a GN Oblivion then get a handpicked model from Asad.
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Yeh I'm disappointed cosmetically however it pings as good as my mates powerbow le and it can only get better through knocking in and opening up but still dunno what to do mate and yeh I was thinking of asking asad but I read cover drives review of his in which he had to wait 7 weeks. And I'm a fan of gray nics mate however h4l look good and have good reviews !
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I would compare it with my present bats for rebound and then do a blind pickup . Some bats when you pick up, they feel like you could score loads of runs with it. If that's the case I would keep it .
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I just think it looks like someone took a 4star and put players sticker on a wonder wat the big ginge would say about this I wonder what gray niccs reply would actually be if you sent this
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Yeh I'm disappointed cosmetically however it pings as good as my mates powerbow le and it can only get better through knocking in and opening up but still dunno what to do mate and yeh I was thinking of asking asad but I read cover drives review of his in which he had to wait 7 weeks. And I'm a fan of gray nics mate however h4l look good and have good reviews !
CD lives in Canada mate, that's why it took 7 weeks. Asad has wonderful customer service, and is always prompt with his deliveries, as you will find out from reviews on here!
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Yeh I'm disappointed cosmetically however it pings as good as my mates powerbow le and it can only get better through knocking in and opening up but still dunno what to do mate and yeh I was thinking of asking asad but I read cover drives review of his in which he had to wait 7 weeks. And I'm a fan of gray nics mate however h4l look good and have good reviews !
My 4 star cosmetically thibk it looks better
(http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s415/shaqharris16/DD57790A-2538-4B09-82FE-40C3CB4A5362-10388-00000A642EEB1A29.jpg)
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Yeh your 4star looks better :@ however just searched cricket bat blemishes and it says that when there's a butter fly stain it represents strong willow that plays very well,,,, and my bat has 3 however I have noticed this blemish on low end bats :@
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But I think of be more dissapointed if I got a stunner and it performed like a plank
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But you think Ali cooks bat looks like this ?
What are you gonna do if you knock it in and it's pure crap :(
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I'm gonna ring owzat tomorrow and see if I can have a refund ! Then get an oblivion from asad or lorimers
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Dont ask, tell them you want a refund but I reckon they might offer to send you another rather than refund the money.
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I'd rather get a good looking and performing 5star from asad then get another oblivion from them when it looks garbage! I was expecting an 7-12 straight grained blemish free blade that pinged amazingly for £210
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210 is a lot of money for what looks like a 4 star grade or lower .
It just appals me that they think this is ok .
I have actually forwarded photos of ur bat to lorimers to see his response
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Are you sure they are butterfly stains as well? As a bat I looked at last weekend had 2 massive butterfly stains on it that looked like butterfly's. And that bat was an Apex 404!!!
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I know mate I was excited when the post man came then disappointed when I opens the package up ! Wonder what lorimers will say
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I'd rather get a good looking and performing 5star from asad then get another oblivion from them when it looks garbage! I was expecting an 7-12 straight grained blemish free blade that pinged amazingly for £210
You've gone from saying in your original post you were really happy with your purchase, to now being really angry. I can't help but think you're trying to agree with everyone here. Are you happy with your purchase, or not?! Make your mind up fella!
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Are you sure they are butterfly stains as well? As a bat I looked at last weekend had 2 massive butterfly stains on it that looked like butterfly's. And that bat was an Apex 404!!!
Yeh it's a butter fly stain mate
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i'd send an email to Gray Nicholls and ask them about it and if they think it is really a £250 rrp bat. Just watch the quality of what they send back to you ... it will be faultless.
I bought a bat online from a retailer (not Pro direct) that had been doctored. It had all the stickers taken off and new ones put back on to make it appear like a better model. it was laughable ....... you could even read the old stickers!! At least it was the same make.
Still have the pics somewhere.
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Yeh it's a butter fly stain mate
Fair enough, they don't look like it to me but then I'm no expert.
I'm not sure why u would want to return it if you say it responds well already. As they say "u don't look at the mantelpiece when your poking the fire"
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Because for £210 it should look and ping good.... But maybe that's just be ?
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I think when he saw it he was just excited to have a new bat !
However when we have all shown out disappointment in what we were expecting to be a good egg too ,
He's suddenly thought damn i paid a lot for this why should I just be happy
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Yeh shaq I'll email gn the pics in the morning
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At least gray nics customer service is great always spot in with me .
You should play a game with them cover up the sticker and ask them to tell you what model it is ha
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Haha shaq
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At least gray nics customer service is great always spot in with me .
You should play a game with them cover up the sticker and ask them to tell you what model it is ha
Don't do this. Go through the retailer. You have the right to return it unused within the used statutory period.
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Don't do this. Go through the retailer. You have the right to return it unused within the used statutory period.
Will they not class testing it for ping as using it ?
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but he didn't buy it from Gray-Nicolls
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but he didn't buy it from Gray-Nicolls
My gray niccs comment was in regard to him writing to them to see what they thort
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Yeh I've got that stapled slip, will ring them up tomorrow to tell them I'm returning for a refund and have emailed gray nics asking if they class this as players willow.....
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Of course they class it as players willow! Who put the sticker on it?
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Return It
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Agree. GN do excellent after market sales. My friend had a Dynadrive that suffered a big crack a few months into the season. They accepted it back without any quibbles and actually replaced it with a better model for free.
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He's doing the right thing sending it to owzat. I doubt GN will answer the email, which is sad.
Hopefully he can get a new Oblivion that has looks and goes... :)
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Yeh I looked on Uzi sports website and seen he had some nice 5 stars in the pic
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This was a 4 star I got.......
(http://i551.photobucket.com/albums/ii471/petehosk/GrayNicolls/oblivion4star/b844869d.jpg)
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It does have a little knot on the face further down, but absolutely not as bad (cosmetically) as your Players!
I am quite shocked about your Players bat to be honest. The ones I have seen at Asad's are superb - and the Players models are supposed to be Grade 1 for heavens sake!!!!!
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If the Oblivion in the OP is even as high as a 4 star I will get naked and run around the forum. Looks very low grade to me.
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I know Pete I had high expectations but now feel let down, the Willow looks grade 3/4 !
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If you tap a mallet on it and the mallet bounces like a trampolene and flies out of your hand, over your shoulder, and hits someone 30 feet away from you on the head then I would kep it, as the performance would make up for the amazingly poor cosmetics! But whoever graded that must of been having a moment, or was totally off his face!
I know we need to remember that it's not all about how the bat looks, but there are standards fellla! ;)
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It does fly off and feels good in the hand but I was expecting it to look better, however I would have been more dissapointed if I got a 20 straight grained bat with heart wood on the outside edge, but it performed like a plank.......
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It's a tough one - at that money you would expect it to perform very well - but I think you also might expect it to look half decent too.
Maybe the question to ask yourself is: 'if I had been in the shop, would I have picked this one out?'
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Tbh I wouldn't have picked this one out I would have gone for good looking and good ping and good feel
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Another point is that you should be thinking about what kind of bat you could get off this forum for that price!
If you were to offer £200 then you would get a hand picked cleft which is pressed beautifully, and made to your spec and weight and pickup! And it would be a nice looking bat too, and play stunningly well! And if it didn't play well then the maker would ensure that it was replaced with another stunner!
And if you now think about what you have been given for that price, then it doesn't look very good in comparison!
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Everyone here raves about JM and his performance grading. But the moment a slightly ugly bat comes, they're moaning and saying it shouldn't be that grade and is should be x grade. Who am I to tell GN how they should grade their bats?
If you don't like the bat for whatever reason, send it back. Owzat have some of the best CS in the business.
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Yeh I night just get one made to the oblivion shape from a forum sponsor
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Everyone here raves about JM and his performance grading. But the moment a slightly ugly bat comes, they're moaning and saying it shouldn't be that grade and is should be x grade. Who am I to tell GN how they should grade their bats?
If you don't like the bat for whatever reason, send it back. Owzat have some of the best CS in the business.
Didn't realise JM was grading for GN these days Tom ;)
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One question Tom - are GN bats graded purely on performance, or are they graded on willow?
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I don't know their exact grading process, hence why I haven't commented that I feel it should be x/y grade. This is not to say this bat hasn't been mis-graded, but again without full knowledge I'm not going to stick my neck out.
The most important opinion in all of this is the buyers, and if you're not happy with the willow looks/performance/shape - then you have rights to return it.
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my powerbow force looks nicer
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If it goes like a train keep it.....if it performs like nothing you have used/owned before why risk getting a bat that might not go as well all for the sake of grains.
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^ good point as it does go really well with 30 mins of knocking in and can only get better I suppose
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Yeah I mean at the end of the day you buy a bat to bash a ball around, and if it has phenominal performance then you have one up on the next mug weilding willow. It's easy to get caught up on looks sometimes....at the end of a day if your buying a bat with the sole purpose of scoring runs not to look at then do looks really matter over performance?
Whenever I've asked for a bat to be custom made I always ask for something that is going to ping like crazy and couldn't care for looks.
Anyway just my two cents worth mate :-)
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Yeh you've got a good point, might just keep it then !
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Don;t want to influence you mate, at the end of the day you paid the cash and if your not hapy with it then only you will know what to do :)
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So far you have talked yourself into keeping it, sending it back, and I'm sure this will continue until it's too late to send it back!
I remember the tour of the GM factory. The clefts were tapped up and put in the relevant model bin, depending on how it tapped up. So for example, if a bat tapped up nicely and looked semi-decent Grade 1, it would be made as an Original. BUT if once it was shaped and being finished there were blemishes then they made it clear that even though the performance was Original model, then cosmetics would cause it to be a 909/808 or worse depending on the blemishes! GM assured us that this is how they work and bats could be downgraded or even upgraded depending on the finished product.
I strongly suspect that GN operate a similar policy as it is a logical and fair way to work. Therefore I suspect that this has indeed been very much incorrectly graded. There is no way that a bat looking like this should represent one of the top models from GN! True that the performance counts for a lot but as someone said before, if you were in a shop and you saw the price tag and that bat, then I am pretty sure that the bat you have would remain on the shelf all season!!! But if you are 100% happy with paying that much hard-earned cash for that bat, then it must be
the most responsive bat ever!!
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Key point by the Hosk there- if you were in a shop and you saw the price tag and that bat, then I am pretty sure that the bat you have would remain on the shelf all season.
Would you have picked that bat from amongst a few for 200 quid, I thought not.
Instead of losing time why not call them and get it sorted/exchanged and you will have a bat for next weekend.
I bet they chose the best looking Players as they are concious that you were not happy with this.
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I think that this can be resolved easily!
If the bat is pure outrageous performance and feels uber special, then keep it.
If it's ordinary and feels nothing special then return it.
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/2011/10/3bc512f1-2fa4-4022-af8d-bfba66551fbdHiRes.JPG
Pic of cooks bat, he has blemishes in his LE like mine so im gonna keep the bat as every things good except the looks but cook uses a bat thats ugly and his bats are tank so it must be graded by performance and not looks
thanks
tony
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Reading this thread, I can't help but think that it's a shame that buying bats in actual shops has become a dated method of purchase. We always recommend that people come in to our shop before buying a bat, or at the very least see actual photos / YouTube videos etc. Imagine the amount of hassle and agonising this would've reduced!
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Reading this thread, I can't help but think that it's a shame that buying bats in actual shops has become a dated method of purchase. We always recommend that people come in to our shop before buying a bat, or at the very least see actual photos / YouTube videos etc. Imagine the amount of hassle and agonising this would've reduced!
Actual pics / videos of the bats are things I love about your site Paul, Same for Asad's site that you get to atleast look at what you are buying...
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Maybe it's a little blunt of me to say this, but I genuinely believe if you buy a bat without actually seeing what the actual bat looks like, you shouldn't really be complaining when the bat you get is not quite as attractive as you'd like it to be...
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Maybe it's a little blunt of me to say this, but I genuinely believe if you buy a bat without actually seeing what the actual bat looks like, you shouldn't really be complaining when the bat you get is not quite as attractive as you'd like it to be...
Completely agree !
Thaw what makes the forum so good u can see bats your buying like asads and many other sponsors I must say every time I but from h4l he has emailed me pics if the actuall bat first
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Maybe it's a little blunt of me to say this, but I genuinely believe if you buy a bat without actually seeing what the actual bat looks like, you shouldn't really be complaining when the bat you get is not quite as attractive as you'd like it to be...
What about custom mades though? When I've bought my last few bats they haven't even been made yet!
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What about custom mades though? When I've bought my last few bats they haven't even been made yet!
A bit different then, I guess - but I think if you're choosing to buy a bat from a retailer, as in this case, you should take advantage of the opportunity for a closer look each time.
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Maybe it's a little blunt of me to say this, but I genuinely believe if you buy a bat without actually seeing what the actual bat looks like, you shouldn't really be complaining when the bat you get is not quite as attractive as you'd like it to be...
I slightly disagree with this, To me first of all if you pay good money for anything then it must not only perform but also look like it...there is a lot of talk around the bat doesn't look good but performs, well to me that is just a way of consoling yourself on getting something a lot lower than you expected...
these are top of the range bats, cost a lot of money and are promised/expected to look and perform like one, if they only look good then downgrade them, if they don't look good but perform then again downgrade them as they are no longer "TOP of the Range"...
as a buyer its nice to be able to see pics but even if there are no pics/videos when i pay good money i expect a good bat both cosmetically & performance wise...you dont get to see your food before you order in an awesome restaurant but when you pay a lot for a meal you expect it to taste good and look good...
you dont fork out ferrari money for a car that looks like Fiat on steroids, i think the bat manufacturer should take a lot of responsibility for this, retailers control if they share pics/vids or not, or hand pick there bats and thats where we see the difference between good service or not...
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If you're paying top whack, then I feel you have a right to expect looks and performance, but I guess to an extent it's partly the responsibility of the batmaker to make sure they manage customer expectations in terms of willow grading.
My own experience selling Charlie French bats is that he does take the performance into account and if a blade is top notch, but ugly he's still prepared to sticker it as his top range.
That said, he is a one man band, whereas I guess Gray Nics are churning out thousands more bats across multiple locations, so can something subjective as grading really be consistent?
Plus Charlie charges well under £200 for his top range.
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If Smokem is knocking about he has pictures of 2 Prem Cru bats that are opposite ends of the scale in terms of looks.
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Gonna send it back of to owzat today and see asads 5 star models or may have a look at h4l
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You were keeping it again less than 24 hours ago!
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I know but I've just seen the salix in Lukeys sale !
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What about Asad and H4L? :-P
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ive seen asad to but havent contacted H4L yet