So after years of good service from my Bulldog Pedigree I decided it was time to change my blade. It had served me very well over the last few seasons and I am convinced it was the reason I scored my first ever and probably only ton in mens cricket. However with a baby on the way I was looking for a top-notch bat and a reduced rate, thankfully a chap at my club is a good friend with David Banks who makes Stac bats.
We went down to Stourbridge Cricket ground with its lovely pavilion and met David who invited us in for a cup of tea and started to regale us with tales about his cricketing past. We went down to his workshop, which can only be described as a junk store and an Aladdin’s cave of all things cricketing including pads, gloves, clothing and embroidery machines. David asked me what weight I was looking for and went and brought a selection of bats for me to have a play with and tap up. He had a couple of shapes, 1 traditional style with small (normal) edges and a fuller back and another style with bigger edges and a more concaved back. I quite liked the look and feel of one of the traditional style bats but David started talking about his ties with the Caribbean as he takes parties out their to play cricket. He said that he has built up a friendship with several first class players out there including Johnson Charles. He then showed me a bat that was destined for him to pick up when he was playing against England at the end of September, but it could not be arranged for them to meet up.
His bat was a modern shape and felt very nice in the hands and had a nice looking face with 12 grains and heartwood on the right handers outside edge. I must have spent about 20 minutes picking up both bats, David put an extra grip on them both as that’s what I prefer. I tapped them both and the modern bat felt better off the mallet and after doing a blind pick up it was again the modern bat that came out on top. David then knocked the bat in for a short while, again keeping us entertained with more stories about his current coaching roles and past tales. I then asked him about laminated bats and he said that some pros do use them, I did not feel it my place to ask him to clarify whether he meant currently or in the past, but he did say that some used the laminates that provided a bigger shape as these in his opinion were not illegal – he then showed us a laminated bat that was massive. He then showed us a bat that was Shane Warne’s old bat that he had been given; it was pretty big and had clearly been dried out to the maximum to produce the size for the weight. He then said that he had heard about people painting salt water onto their bats and then placing them somewhere very warm or in front of an oven and the salt water would draw a lot of the moisture out of the bat reducing the weight – I’ll let someone else try that out!
We then wondered our way through the cave to his little workshop that was reassuringly covered in wood shavings and lots of handled clefts, handles, clefts and bats awaiting to be finished, fixed and refurbed etc. He then applied the stickers to my bat including face cover protector and he used wood hardener for the toe to keep the water out and popped it into a nice bat cover. He then ran me through the tools he uses and invited me back over in the future when I needed it refurbing or a new bat – even saying I could have a go making my own with his guidance. I asked about his future plans and he said that he wants to keep his bat making low key at the moment as he does a lot of coaching. He has plans to increase the size of his workshop and possibly output production but he says he would rather keep producing a small quantity of high quality bats and to be fair who can blame him?
Sorry for the ramble, I hope you like the photos
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Topic: Stac Cricket Bat (Read 16146 times)