Thought I'd put the review here because I wanted to go through the order process as well, after all for most of us buying online is also about the level of service and the assistance in getting the right bat.
I had to go to the post office today to pick up a parcel, hilariously they didn't want to give it to me as my ID says Andrew but as I go by Andy, Jake had put that on the address label. Once the lady in the post office came to her senses (seriously thought she was winding me up) I retired to my secret lair......my kitchen.
Looks well packed, this was confirmed when I opened it up and the blade and toe were nicely protected.
I frantically unwrapped it to have a good look at the blade and swing it around the room, I reckon I've scored at least 50 with it in my head so far, chanceless as well
The looksI'd thought long and hard about this piece of wood, not the grain monster that most people are looking for but has 7 decent grains down the blade with 1 right on the edge either side so effectively 9. When buying a bat this time around, I'd initially planned to get something that looked like my step daughter had been practising using her ruler, but after much reading and discussions with my wood expert Father decided that this was the one for me. More on the selection process later on.
Stickers look great and the general finish is genuinely top class, if this came from one of the more traditional and bigger manufacturers it would still have the wow factor. The fact that a smaller brand such a Hell4Leather is knocking out bats to this standard is a real compliment to Matt and the guys down in Kent. There is a real buzz about this company around these boards and I can only add my name to the list of admirers, I don't buy a bat for the stickers but if I did, this would be the bat I bought!
Anyhow, enjoy some pictures of this lovely piece of wood, you can see that it is a decent size and I can tell that I'll look down on it as the bowler runs in feeling confident of landing it in Brazil.
Grains
Chunky
Nice toe
Duckbill
Nice grains
The feelComing in at around 2lb 9oz it picks up like a wand, I can see why the previous reviews mentioned the counter balance, because it really does make a difference. Fortunately my grip won't really be affected by this, I'd be surprised if anyone was to be honest although you could become conscious of it as the bat turns in your hand.
I'm used to a heavy bat, the new Warbird's stable mate a pushing 3lb Kookaburra Big Kahuna that has served me very well. This is going to feel different but is definitely more conducive with stroke making and hitting the cover off it rather than just the latter.
The pingThe most important part, after all who cares about looks when your wandering back to the pavilion having holed out to mid off. Now this is the bit where I inevitably wax lyrical about how perfect the bat is and how I nearly broke every window in the house just by tapping it, but I can genuinely say that the performance is better than I expected. Considering my expectations were already high due to the discussions with Jake and the talk of Hell4Leather bats on this forum I can honestly say the first few taps brought a smile to my face and confirmation I'd made a good decision. Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating (yes, that is the correct phrase) and come the summer we'll see if it is as good as it feels so far because of course it won't be my fault
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The backstoryNow to the bit that I wanted to make sure I put on record, thanks to Jake for his assistance purchasing this bat. As a family man parting with several hundred pounds is not an easy thing to do, well it is, but convincing my wife it is a good idea is the difficult bit, so I owed it to myself to make sure I spent the money wisely.
Let me take you back a step, I packed in cricket about 4 years ago aged 30, having played since I was 7, I'd ended up as 1st XI Captain, junior coach and general 'go to guy' meaning my life revolved around the club. As much as I enjoyed those things, my time was up and I'd started to resent it all, close friends were moving to play at a higher level at the end of the season and things were happening that I'd started to get fed up with, so I packed it in and settled down, got married and now have a lovely daughter.
Back to the story, I decided (in September) that it was time to get back to it, lose some weight and deal with some unfinished business, I needed some new kit and decided that I was having a new bat. The wife doesn't understand so wasn't hard to convince her that I needed this
The purchaseI'd had a good look around at different manufacturers and different retailers and decided that I wanted to go down the Hell4Leather route, obviously there are a handful of options here but I decided to have a chat with Vitas Cricket to see what they could do for me. There were a couple of factors in this decision, Vitas had a first crack at the Hell4Leather stock and were also willing to take a deposit with no pressure or rush for payment of the balance. I'd initially asked Jake to pick me out a Hattori around the 2lb 9oz mark, I then hassled him about pictures, performance etc etc and he was more than willing to help me out wherever he could, including sending me pictures and reporting on individual bats via Whats App (I'd never used this before!) whilst he was at the workshop. I pushed my luck a bit with this but Jake was willing to help out as much as he could. When it came to it there was nothing to hand that fitted my spec (2lb 9oz, no heartwood, grains, chunky) so Jake had asked for one to be made up but also sent me pictures of the 2lb 9oz and 2lb 10oz bats he had picked up. My options being either pick out one of them or wait, considering that there was a potential price difference and they'd done me a big favour already I was pleasantly surprised by this offer.
Jake and I discussed the Warbird along with the other bats at great length, at all hours and was happy to supply me with pictures from whatever angle I wanted and describe to me exactly how it picked up or performed in comparison to the other bats. I should explain that the pictures of the bat were taken by Jake and not me, I don't have some kind of crazy cricket shop living room.
All told I go this bat for a fantastic price and have had probably the best retail experience I can remember, it takes a lot to impress me and I love being a keyboard warrior to get a refund/voucher/apology so trust me when I say that Jake and Vitas in general couldn't be anymore helpful. No gimmicks, no rubbish, just straightforward and helpful advice.......even at 11:30pm!
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Topic: Hell4Leather Warbird from Vitas Cricket (Read 4415 times)