I wonder what these are like in comparision to Bola machines? Much to my delight (and that of my wallet) our club has just decided to buy a Bola bowling machine but these look quite interesting, especially as they are well under £800 and also include a 12 ball feeder. Top speed of 70mph would be fine for me given that I rarely set the Bola (at the local indoor cricket school) to above 60mph.
I bought one these several months ago when we moved to Brisbane. I had always wanted one and had always been envious of those characters in American films who go down to the pitching nets, put a few quarters in the machine, and work-out the stresses of the day by creaming a few a balls. In truth it is more than this but that was one of my intentions as I simply enjoy batting, the feel, the concentration, the sound, and yes even a bit of exercise. You'd be surprised how tiring batting in the nets with one of these can be for 2hours. You'll be able to face literally tens of hundreds of deliveries - if you have a willing partner to feed the machine that long - and of course i accept quantity is not quality, except sometime it is just as satisfying!
In answer to your question, it is not really comparable to the BOLA. It won't go as fast (though I must concede it is pretty darn fast with the right balls and nets- read on below). It doesn't have as much deliberate variation. It is not as precise. It is not as well made. However for personal use, it can be fantastic.
Actually this is much cheaper than a BOLA, especially here in Australia where I paid 900 Australian dollars, which for once is a hurrah for us because mostly things are much more expensive Down Under. The price is probably because it's made in China as evidenced by the stickers that say the same and the poor finish including some exposed wires on the one we got (which as it came thru the mail and would have cost a fortune to return, we have just taken care of ourselves).
It'll spit balls out with some real venom at top whack. The hard balls explode the top soil on a home wicket, so we take it down to the local nets where there is the standard carpet on concrete affair. The tripod legs come apart easily so we can pack it up into a smallish cricket bag and cart it down there and erect it in 10 mins and play for unto 2 hours on a car battery with an inverter. Actually my wife converted one of those old lady shopping trolleys to roll it around from the boot of the car to the nets about 400m away. With about 60 hours worth of use so far my wife has got down a really good technique which we think makes the most of the characteristics of the unit which some might consider weaknesses but suits me fine. That is to say, because there is only one spinning wheel you find that softer balls have a tendency to float upwards and the faster you bowl it the more pronounced this becomes. The ball could look like a shin high full toss at the outset and finish as a head high no-ball if you set it to 10/10 which is meant to be 120kph according to the sales material we saw. This phenomenon is almost completely eradicated with the standard heavy solid balls. Whilst the soft balls may slow after pitching on carpeted concrete nets, the normal BOLA-like hard balls stay the same or even pick-up pace after bouncing. Furthermore, because there is just one rotating wheel as opposed to the two which pinch the ball at the point of release on a BOLA, it means that about 1 in 12 don't quite fire down the line and length that you set up. This 1 in 12 occurrence can lead to fairly drastic variation greater than 1.5-2 feet changes in line and length, which keeps you on your toes. The consequence of all of this is that with a bit of experience my wife is now able to send down some goodish variety without actually changing the line or length. All she does is vary the ball types (soft or hard - they look the same) +/- minor speed changes which can give some pleasurable outcomes. On the same setting for line and length, the hard ball could be a short-pitched 70mph affair with some extra zip off the deck, and the next ball of the softer variety could be a 60mph yorker which catches you out, without her even changing the line and length. Then there also is no accounting for that 1 in 12 Devon Malcom ball which either takes your head off or goes fizzing by high, wide and handsomely unreachable.
The fact that is perhaps a little less robust than a BOLA also lends to a few benefits. The first I have already mentioned which is the ability to cart iy about, though I did strain a muscle the first time I tried carrying it uphill and have since stuck with the bag-on-wheels set-up. The second relates to swing. You can do swing on this machine, but not spin at all. Setting up swing takes practice. If you dial-in the full range of angles possible with the simple hinge and screw system it has, then you're likely to get the kind of banana ball you'd never see in real life. However, just very subtle angle changes, often unintentional can create beautiful and tough-to-play in/out swing. Because of the ferocity with which it spits out the heavy/ standard balls, and the somewhat lightweight design of the legs/ tripod, casing and brackets etc. you do get insidious change to the line and length that you may have specifically set-up to practice a shot. It's nothing major and probably you'd have to readjust it every 4 overs at top whack. However, as the housing moves it sometimes creates just the slightest shift from vertical which creates realistic swing, which swings early with the lighter balls and later with the heavier ones.
All in all, I'm happy with it. It's cheerful and when there are no training nets to be had it allows a non-cricketer to help a cricketer out with some kind of batting practice. However, if money were no object I'd get something with 2 wheels like a BOLA.
Hope this helps.
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Topic: THE PACEMAN BOWLING MACHINE (Read 13320 times)