Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Forum News and Suggestions => Old Advertisers => Admin Board => Aldred Cricket Bats => Topic started by: TangoWhiskey on May 28, 2014, 11:19:54 AM
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I contacted Paul a couple of weeks back regarding a new bat. I had a few options on the table in my price range and I have to admit since I joined here I have had my beady eye on one of his creations, so I didn't take too much convincing!
I was waiting for my Newbery to sell to free up some funds before I jumped in and I was eying up a grade 2 Gold Sovereign, but then Paul posted a few clefts in his butterfly section and the grainy one second from the right caught my eye:
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_12641_zps9a83bdd4.jpg)
So over the next few emails which, despite being busy Paul answered everything quickly and patiently, we hammered out the details of what I wanted. I ordered and paid and continued to pester, the post payment customer service from Paul was still very kind and professional, I could tell he was very busy but he still took time to answer my menial emails.
So after about a 10 day turn around my grainy butterfly turned up at the office today. I would like to take some nicer pictures to do it some more justice but it will have to wait til I get home:
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13041_zpsd7775d8f.jpg)
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13031_zpsd4cb427f.jpg)
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13051_zpsd00b4669.jpg)
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13061_zps50610658.jpg)
Today is going to be a long day, I can not wait to get it home and start knocking it in and tapping balls up on it.
I would totally recommend Paul to a friend even before I have checked out the performance of the bat, he is very helpful and the bats he makes represent some great value for money. If this bat performs anything near to how it looks then I am sure it won't be the last of my dealings with Mr Aldred!
Cheers Paul.
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I know what you mean by saying that you can't wait to get home to bounce balls on it. As I get all my bats delivered to my office, I now have a ball there to tap them up with! That's a sweet looking blade, for sure. I am really keen to hear how a bat with amount of grainage (?) performs especially being a butterfly.
I emailed Paul a couple of times but he didn't seem that keen to help. He would be pretty flat out with the quality of bat he is producing at the moment I would imagine. Good on him, great job!
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That shape is beautiful.
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I know what you mean by saying that you can't wait to get home to bounce balls on it. As I get all my bats delivered to my office, I now have a ball there to tap them up with! That's a sweet looking blade, for sure. I am really keen to hear how a bat with amount of grainage (?) performs especially being a butterfly.
I emailed Paul a couple of times but he didn't seem that keen to help. He would be pretty flat out with the quality of bat he is producing at the moment I would imagine. Good on him, great job!
He must have been too busy emailing me back, I sent him literally hundreds! He was very helpful, especcially as I could tell he was very busy. He does coaching on the side too which also means his time is stretched.
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This is what passes as a 'sub-standard' butterfly cleft...
Most companies 'Grade 1+' wouldn't look as good as that!!
Sign me up! :D
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This is what passes as a 'sub-standard' butterfly cleft...
Most companies 'Grade 1+' wouldn't look as good as that!!
Sign me up! :D
Yep, Paul is probably too honest for his own good! It looks lovely, almost if it would be a real shame for me to soil it by using it with my excuse for cricket!
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looks lovely and for the price paul sells them at i can't see many other bats getting close
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I'm in love, beautiful grains and shape.
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Roughly 25 grains is what I counted. 😱 What was the price?
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Roughly 25 grains is what I counted. 😱 What was the price?
£170, absolute bargain.
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£170, absolute bargain.
That's what I call value for money. Cheapest 25 grain bat ever. Bats twice as expensive don't even have half the grains or that beautiful heartwood.
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took me a minute to find the so called butterfly!
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I know what you mean by saying that you can't wait to get home to bounce balls on it. As I get all my bats delivered to my office, I now have a ball there to tap them up with! That's a sweet looking blade, for sure. I am really keen to hear how a bat with amount of grainage (?) performs especially being a butterfly.
I emailed Paul a couple of times but he didn't seem that keen to help. He would be pretty flat out with the quality of bat he is producing at the moment I would imagine. Good on him, great job!
I am always interested in helping everyone. can't remember what you were looking for wickets but we try and accommodate most people but we draw the line sometimes at requests that are just too expectant as we do not want to compromise our standards and ethics. Unfortunately I may have missed the odd email, I try not to but sometimes they escape. I am not running a factory I am running a purely bespoke small home workshop that I am gradually building by word of mouth rather than big advertising and doing exactly what I say we do and that is handmade my cricket bats from scratch to order for each individual customer. I have never wanted to be a company that claims to be a bat maker and then just labels pre mades up or tidies up part made bats i have always wanted to learn the craft and keep learning that's why I do this the way I do it. It's not about the money to me although I do want to make a living out of it, it's about the pride in what I do and the feeling I get from it exactly the same as when I was playing, hopefully I'm a bit better at this than I was at playing :D.
Anyone who wants help or honest advice please don't hesitate to get in touch
Paul
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took me a minute to find the so called butterfly!
Haha well could you point it out to me, I'm still looking!
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Stunning bat
The quality of willow and the exemplary workmanship speak volumes for the bats Paul's turning out
It really does look too good to use
British manufacturing doesn't get any better!
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You should see the grade 1s and players grades I have to clean up and handle truly unbelievably beautiful. :o
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You should see the grade 1s and players grades I have to clean up and handle truly unbelievably beautiful. :o
No bat porn, Paul.
My wallet can't take it! :-[
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Your safe at the moment am away coaching all this week but next week, oh my word you may need a cold shower by Wednesday ;)
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Apologies for hijacking the thread, just had my two delivered and all I can say Is how well they tap up. The butterfly top grade bats are stunners. Great shape and pick up to them both.
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Glad they are all good horseman
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Well always nice to get feed back from people non more so than players at the top. Just had a text from one of the main guys at Notts no name can be mentioned so don't ask I won't answer but all the text said was as follows
"Hi mate just a short message to let you know the bat is a belter, really enjoying using it!! Thanks again hope all is well --------"
That always makes me very happy in what I am doing. It was a lovely players grade that was made for him
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Paul
does he use your stickers on the bat or is it your bat with somebody else stickers?
im going to guess the second one as you cant share his name
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Someone else's I couldn't afford him
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I am always interested in helping everyone. can't remember what you were looking for wickets but we try and accommodate most people but we draw the line sometimes at requests that are just too expectant as we do not want to compromise our standards and ethics. Unfortunately I may have missed the odd email, I try not to but sometimes they escape. I am not running a factory I am running a purely bespoke small home workshop that I am gradually building by word of mouth rather than big advertising and doing exactly what I say we do and that is handmade my cricket bats from scratch to order for each individual customer. I have never wanted to be a company that claims to be a bat maker and then just labels pre mades up or tidies up part made bats i have always wanted to learn the craft and keep learning that's why I do this the way I do it. It's not about the money to me although I do want to make a living out of it, it's about the pride in what I do and the feeling I get from it exactly the same as when I was playing, hopefully I'm a bit better at this than I was at playing :D.
Anyone who wants help or honest advice please don't hesitate to get in touch
Paul
Hi Paul, no worries at all, I appreciate how busy you are. It's great to see you building your brand and standing true to your beliefs! I am looking forward to getting one of your Players made for me and will be in touch.
Cheers! :)
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Look forward to it wickets
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Apologies for hijacking the thread, just had my two delivered and all I can say Is how well they tap up. The butterfly top grade bats are stunners. Great shape and pick up to them both.
I concur. I bounced a ball a couple of times and was quietly impressed, then I gave it a big whack with my mallet and nearly lost the mallet through the ceiling and the bat through the floor. Now I just have to negotiate a few hours with the Mrs out of the house so I can get really stuck in to readying it for a game!
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That is a beauty- a wonderful combination of tight grains and butterfly. I feel my wallet hand twitching - fantastic bat.
Feel free to put a few more pictures up as it gets knocked in and then used in anger.
Enjoy,
David
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That is a beauty- a wonderful combination of tight grains and butterfly. I feel my wallet hand twitching - fantastic bat.
Feel free to put a few more pictures up as it gets knocked in and then used in anger.
Enjoy,
David
Will do, my Mrs gave me a couple of earfuls yesterday. Once because she discovered I had more pictures of my bat on my phone than of her and another when she came into to use the bathroom and I was rubbing the edges up and down the bath! :D
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Will do, my Mrs gave me a couple of earfuls yesterday. Once because she discovered I had more pictures of my bat on my phone than of her and another when she came into to use the bathroom and I was rubbing the edges up and down the bath! :D
Hmmmmm not heard of that one before, now I'm getting a bit worried about some customers :(
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Hmmmmm not heard of that one before, now I'm getting a bit worried about some customers :(
Haha imagine how I tried explained it to the Mrs! Its just to get them starting to round and toughen a bit, much more delicate and easier to manage than bashing them with a hammer!
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you need to rub the bat on your linseed oil soaked bone.
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you need to rub the bat on your linseed oil soaked bone.
Ah yes the gags are endless. Unfortunately I don't have one, could I borrow yours? I don't know how the Mrs would respond if I left half a cow shin lying on the living room table!
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Amazing how many companies are coming out with the butterfly bats now isn't it. I wonder where that fashion sprung up from again after all these years ;)
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So yesterday I managed to get an hour of alone time with my bat. Things started off slow, with some gentle and rhythmic taps before we moved onto the sofa and started banging away. The feedback on the mallet is really good, the ping starts about an inch and a half to two inches from the toe, before being very springy all over the middle and goes all the way up to the the butterfly sticker. I can't wait to finish her up and start getting some throw downs in a net and even more so to get it game ready.
Lucky its so pretty that it's nice enough just to look at! Here's more pictures for your viewing pleasure:
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13171_zps31fb7233.jpg)
Looking down with confidence
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13181_zps3a64713b.jpg)
I'm a massive fan of the stickers, very sleek and classy.
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13191_zps2d4e37b4.jpg)
Grains go right through the toe, very straight.
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13201_zps72eb64f2.jpg)
Mmm... Grains
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13211_zps76dec88c.jpg)
Full frontal
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13221_zps8bdc88c9.jpg)
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/tanwatfa/IMG_13231_zpsced9b794.jpg)
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looks a superb bat. looking forward to a review after nets
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With those grains it looks like a £300 bat
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I have to get one butterfly bat up next
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Paul, can you get VAT registered quickly :)
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Long way from doing that to be worth my while
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paul, im not sure if its too much to hope for but something similar to this would be ideal for my butterfly g1
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Well always nice to get feed back from people non more so than players at the top. Just had a text from one of the main guys at Notts no name can be mentioned so don't ask I won't answer but all the text said was as follows
"Hi mate just a short message to let you know the bat is a belter, really enjoying using it!! Thanks again hope all is well --------"
That always makes me very happy in what I am doing. It was a lovely players grade that was made for him
Would be ironic if it was Steven Mullaney.
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Got an incredibly busy week this next week having been away coaching all this last week. Have some beautiful top end clefts to press and handle on top of orders to go out. Some repairs for people that are in a rush for them, actually enjoy doing repairs as they are all a bit different and also would like to get a couple of little videos done to answer some questions that have been emailed through to me. Will try and post some more pics of what's going out for you and catch up with you guys a little more on here.
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paul, im not sure if its too much to hope for but something similar to this would be ideal for my butterfly g1
I think everyone would like a bat like that!
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Just as a follow up to this, I still haven't used it in anger, as the first week I thought it would be ready it was damp and I didn't want to use it and then I've been injured since. It has had a lot of knocking in and is beginning to ping very nicely (not that it didn't straight out of the box!) and I am hoping to use it on Saturday, again will depend on the weather. Will update next week.
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Finally this beauty got a run out in a game. Let me tell you right now that it is a great bat, the ball comes off it with a lovely assertive noise and very little effort is required to send the ball to the boundary.
It's lucky infact that I had such a weapon at my disposal as we fielded first and my troublesome knee flared up midway through their innings as we bowled them out for 127. I dropped myself down the batting order to 7 to save my leg but sure enough a ludicrous collapse had me padded up and hobbling out to the middle within 45 minutes with about 60 runs required. My beautiful Aldred spared me too much running as anything that came of it scorched its way to the boundary as I made 41 with minimal running required to guide the team to a win.
In the mean time the bat also drew very admiring glances from both my team and members of the oppo, hopefully a few of them might get in touch soon Paul.
I am very very happy with my bat and I cannot recommend Paul enough. The bat is a beauty and Paul's service and patience is exceptional, I'll certainly be ordering another one from him on the sad day that my one hits it's last ball. Thanks Paul.
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Nice to see you had a good first knock with the bat
I'm sure there will be many more
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G1+
Rear piece of willow. By the way, do mind sharing how much you paid for it?
I am getting a new bat from Paul as well, he is really professional and response to emails right away.
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Yep, if only Paul could craft me a new knee or two! I paid £170, absolute bargain!
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I think this thread has definitely made me decide on my next bat!
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Just as an update on this guys, my knee has recovered sufficiently enough to play in nets and let me tell you, this thing is awesome. Everything I hit from anywhere between the toe and the stickers absolutely flies. I am thoroughly delighted with it and I can't wait to get it out to the middle! I'm definitely getting another one as a backup from you Paul, I'm going to be keeping an eye out for any similar clefts you post!