Hi,
I have been a silent lurker for a while, but bought a new bat on a bit of a whim this week and figured it was a good opportunity to say hello.
I'd been sent a 20% off voucher by Barrington and decided to use it. After a fair bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing I plumped for this one as I liked the profile, it's been ages since I have used a GN so was keen to see how they go these days, and finally because I was also keen to see if the carbo handle element made any noticeable difference. With them offering a small discount over the weekend and using the voucher, it meant it has ended up costing £148.
I ordered 2'11, and it actually shows up as 2'10.25 on my scales which is fine as I was torn whether to get 2'10 or 2'11 anyway - I've been used to using bats around 2'13 so wanted to go a little lighter.
It has 6 grains, which become 7 towards the bottom where they veer off the straight a little, and there is a blemish near the toe, but nothing that causes me any concern (not that I am an expert on willow I admit).
I like the half moon grip, it feels good in the hands, whilst the handle itself is a little bit thinner than ideal but not so thin as to make me want to add a second grip to it. The edge is 35mm and the bat picks up nicely - definitely feels like a solid lump of wood when waving it around.
My first impression when tapping it with the mallet was that the sweetspot was tiny, but after knocking it for a few minutes that is thankfully not the case, though I get the feeling it may take a little while to hit its best in terms of performance.
Apologies if I have left out any other information that people like to read in these things, feel free to tell me if I have. I am not sure when I will get to use it against a ball, but I shall report back when I do if anyone is interested.
In the meantime here are a few photos.
Cheers,
Haz