Hello fellow bat lovers, I received my latest purchase this morning and it doesn't seem to be the usual Kookaburra Ricochet 250...... (apologies for the poor quality photos)
I was the successful bidder of a Kookaburra Ricochet 250 that was posted on the Ebay Bargain Spots page last week. It turned up this morning and I was very excited to see my new baby. The reason behind this purchase is because I have been using my brother's Kookaburra Ricochet 250 and wanted to try one out for myself. As I have both 250's with me at the moment, it has been interesting to compare and contrast.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img5/2761/img2013051600389.jpg)
Both bats have chunky profiles for the weight (The used is 2lb 8.2oz and the new one is 2lb 9.2oz) and both look much better than the low 250 grade suggest. The new 250 has 11 grains with a touch of heartwood on the inside for a right hander, not bad for £80 posted!
(http://imageshack.us/a/img27/349/img2013051600390.jpg)
I'm sure you want to know why all is not as it seems! Once taking the bat out of the box, I quickly noticed that it had no shoulder markings, which puzzled me. When comparing the two bats, the used 250 had clear markings of 13 and E.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img19/7430/img2013051600398.jpg)
I started looking around to find other differences between the two bats and could not find any more. Both had standard Kookaburra toegaurds, very similar profiles and the same striking sticker and grip combination. However, after rolling down both grips, another difference was found.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img404/1580/img2013051600388.jpg)
With a clear sample sticker and a 'UK RECOCHE' showing, does this explain the lack of shoulder makings? And why the difference in names between Ricochet and Recoche? Maybe a pre-production name?
After this discovery, I wanted to find out the origins of the bat. The packaging had the company name (Mitchell Sports) and address on it, which after a little digging is linked to Owzat Cricket (same address as well).
So is this bat a Sample Richochet 250 that Kookaburra sent to Owzat before the 2013 kit was released? Hopefully all will be revealed when the seller, Kookseller, replies to my Ebay message. Until now, the questions still remain unanswered.