Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Other Gear => Topic started by: gerhard303 on September 06, 2014, 05:22:10 AM
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Gents,
I came across a current deal on Willowizard's website: trade in your old bat and get $100 off a new Willowizard. It's an interesting concept, but interstate shipping costs (return within Australia) could cost about $40. Their premium bat (which is probably the only one I would opt for) is still beyond my budget. That said, it's a pretty decent deal and I thought it'd be worth asking the forum about the brand.
http://www.willowizard.com/ (http://www.willowizard.com/)
I've heard of Willowizard bats but have never seen one nor have I heard anything re: performance, quality etc. From what little I have learnt: the Wand Pro and Limited Edition Pro are imported (and/or finished off in the Willowizard workshop) and only the Players Reserve (custom) is fully hand made (and pressed?) in the Willowizard workshop. IMO Willowizard's stickers/branding seem to be among the best of the Australian made bats.
Does anyone have an opinion or experience of Willowizard? How do their off-the-shelf profiles compare to other bats?
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Admin: I should've put this in Custom Companies. Would you mind relocating this post/thread?
Cheers!
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Check your PM.
WilloWizard bats that I've seen all seem to be fairly chunky edged, decent bows and a bit of concaving. It's pretty much a decent shape without anything too strange going on. I think the bottom of the line bat is made in India, but not sure if this has changed. Top line ones are pressed in England.
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200279818227231&set=pb.1506736203.-2207520000.1409987069.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-frc3%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2F600264_10200279818227231_498928380_n.jpg%3Foh%3D12233b319885471a91f3d908d71833a7%26oe%3D549E1D11%26__gda__%3D1419888494_56e83b21fe5ddbf92ce320e2bfaedea0&size=960%2C720 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200279818227231&set=pb.1506736203.-2207520000.1409987069.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-frc3%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2F600264_10200279818227231_498928380_n.jpg%3Foh%3D12233b319885471a91f3d908d71833a7%26oe%3D549E1D11%26__gda__%3D1419888494_56e83b21fe5ddbf92ce320e2bfaedea0&size=960%2C720)
Their go to shape I reckon.
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Tugga PMed me some useful info about Willowizard and has given me permission to copy it to this thread [Cheers, Tugga]:
Messaged Brad (WilloWizard) last year, he gets his clefts pressed and handled in England by Tim Keeley, the fella behind the Newbery production line. Brings them back here and shapes and finishes them. So should be decent quality. He's down for making most shapes though. I'm looking to have him take a bit of weight off my Fisher soon.
The lower grade ones are made in India by Champ? There's a past thread on this actually, he's a forum member I think, albeit only posted a couple of times.
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Honestly you can do better for you're money
have a chat to Lachlan Dinger at Dingbat Sports, 100% australian made in melbourne and are crackers.
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Just had a quick read up on Dingbat Sports, had never heard of them before. Have you used them? Seems to be a fairly new company, they're not cheap either
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Honestly you can do better for you're money
have a chat to Lachlan Dinger at Dingbat Sports, 100% australian made in melbourne and are crackers.
Cheers for the tip - I don't know much about the Dingbat bats. Would you mind posting some pics of yours and sharing some info?
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Lad at my club uses a Dingbat. I've had a look and feel and it looks good. Not had a hit with it but the lad reckons its great. I was never impressed with the stickers but they've had a redesign this year and look a lot better. Interestingly when my mate got the bat Lachlan said he might as well get a lower grade for cheaper as the performance was no different. From all accounts Lachlan knows what he's doing. For example if you take your bat to GCCC to be refurbed it's not GCCC that refurb it.
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It's interesting that they also have Australian willow custom bats, which is their most inexpensive model to choose from @ $330 AUD. Was the one you saw an Australian willow bat? I'd be interested to know more about how it compares to English willow.
http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made (http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made)
It appears that Dingbat's custom made service is unavailable at present - all models are sold out, which is a bit odd considering we are in the preseason. Either they are extremely popular and have significant back order of bats to make or they are suspending this service for a while. Possibly both!
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It's interesting that they also have Australian willow custom bats, which is their most inexpensive model to choose from @ $330 AUD. Was the one you saw an Australian willow bat? I'd be interested to know more about how it compares to English willow.
[url]http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made[/url] ([url]http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made[/url])
It appears that Dingbat's custom made service is unavailable at present - all models are sold out, which is a bit odd considering we are in the preseason. Either they are extremely popular and have significant back order of bats to make or they are suspending this service for a while. Possibly both!
Or because of size they can't get willow.
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Or because of size they can't get willow.
Very good point. In fact, I have just found their facebook page and there was this recent post (4 September) on their wall:
"New batch of clefts are due from the UK next week! If your wanting a Tailor made this season then be sure to get in touch early before they all sell! Will also be a few Charisma and Aggressor bats heading to selected retailers! #dingbat #cricketbats #madeinaustralia #handcrafted"
https://www.facebook.com/dingbatsports?fref=ts (https://www.facebook.com/dingbatsports?fref=ts)
There are also a few pictures of the Charisma and Aggressor bats, which are not listed on their website.
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As the topic has broadened to include other Australian bat makers, it might be worthwhile posting a link to Tugga's review of his Fisher bat:
http://custombats.co.uk/cbforum/index.php?topic=20250.msg320691#msg320691 (http://custombats.co.uk/cbforum/index.php?topic=20250.msg320691#msg320691)
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It's interesting that they also have Australian willow custom bats, which is their most inexpensive model to choose from @ $330 AUD. Was the one you saw an Australian willow bat? I'd be interested to know more about how it compares to English willow.
[url]http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made[/url] ([url]http://www.dingbatsports.com.au/new-products/tailor-made[/url])
It appears that Dingbat's custom made service is unavailable at present - all models are sold out, which is a bit odd considering we are in the preseason. Either they are extremely popular and have significant back order of bats to make or they are suspending this service for a while. Possibly both!
The bat I saw was English Willow. No idea how Aussie Willow compares.
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No idea, but I noticed a Callen bat on Aus eBay and had a look at their site, it appears they exclusively use Aussie willow.
http://www.callencricket.com.au/ABOUT-US.html
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WillowWizard is owned and ran by Brad who comes to Bristol in the summer, top lad and good bloke.
Worth chatting to him, lots used by Bristol CC over here as you can imagine who play a good standard as well as a will tav or glos ccc.
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Hi All,
A customer pointed me to this topic!
Reason for the tailor made being currently unavailable online is infact due to no willow :(. Yes, possibly hard to believe! But buying willow from the UK from down here in Australia hasn't been particularly easy for us! All sorted now though (fingers crossed) :) Some clefts are due this week.
Website is still in the process of being updated, hopefully will be ironed out this week also.
Just as a side note, the Aussie willow I use is from a different plantation to Ian Callen's.
Brad from Willowizard is a champion, knows his stuff, as shown buy his kit :)
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Reason for the tailor made being currently unavailable online is infact due to no willow :(. Yes, possibly hard to believe! But buying willow from the UK from down here in Australia hasn't been particularly easy for us! All sorted now though (fingers crossed) :) Some clefts are due this week.
Website is still in the process of being updated, hopefully will be ironed out this week also.
Just as a side note, the Aussie willow I use is from a different plantation to Ian Callen's.
Cheers for this information! Whilst we've got you're here, would you mind giving us a brief run down on your new offerings: the Aggressor and Charisma models?
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Cheers for this information! Whilst we've got you're here, would you mind giving us a brief run down on your new offerings: the Aggressor and Charisma models?
I would love to, but not being a forum sponsor, I'm not sure if its the right thing to do.... Unless an admin gives me the ok to simply describe the shapes. Don't want to get myself in trouble, or bark up the wrong willow ???
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Fair call - looking forward to the updates on your website. :)
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Willowizard are great sticks. Had one years ago and I had no complaints. I use a WOMBAT now, but the willowizards are still very good.
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Willowizard are great sticks. Had one years ago and I had no complaints. I use a WOMBAT now, but the willowizards are still very good.
How do you find the Wombat? Searched the forum and couldn't find much about those... will you be doing a review of it?
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Absolutely swear by the WOMBAT mate. I have a few and they are all rippers. And they are cheaper than a lot of others. I've got the whole wombat kit. What type of review do you mean? Youtube video or pictures?
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNa9LRfCQAAgIrl.jpg:large)
This is some of the stuff I have here in Australia. I have another kit sitting in my girlfriend's attic for when I'm playing in the UK. (She lives in the UK!)
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What type of review do you mean? Youtube video or pictures?
Any review which will give us some detail about the brand, quality, bat profile, specs etc.!!
It's made over in the UK, right?
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No mate. It's an Aussie company with the bats made in Jalandhar, India. The high end bats have about 7-10 straight grains. Concaved with huge edges etc. Top of the range bats go for about $300 I think.
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Can't seem to find any prices for Wombat on its site?
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My mate bought the top of the range Dig-In bat for $300 AUD about a month ago.
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Fancy one of those short mongoose style bats
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Not sure if anyone's come across one of the Willowizard First Class bats... any one seen them in the flesh? They are apparently in very limited quantity.
https://twitter.com/willowizard/status/634619719153229824