Having owned a GN100, or Scoop as we affectionally know it, since just before Christmas, and taken rather longer than I would have liked to give it some knocking in (think 3 months to compelte an hour or so, probably due to having too many to do this to), I finally got it down to the nets last night to give it a try out against some real cricket balls.
Firstly the Scoop itself. It's a standard short handle weighing in at 2lb 9.8oz with 40mm edges. The pictures are below.
But how well does it work? The older scoops, as noted by one of our older club members had a narrower, and in his opinion, deeper scoop, as per the original golf club inspired design. I had used a couple of these old school bats as I started to play cricket, and I don't know whether it was age or design, but I could never find the middle.
So moving forwards 40 odd years and we have the all new GN100, using modern pressing techniques and with minor variances from the original shape. I'd used it in the Batoff against a Bola, and while it was okay, there werecertainly better bats there, but then at that point it wasn't knocked in, so it felt a litttle premature to judge it.
Last night it was taken to the net and put into use. It's remarkable how people react to the Scoop, as loads of people look at it, coo over it and pick it up and wave it around. It still raises eyebrows and causes a level of excitement. Much like Mongeese and Jokers do... So on a Marketing level, the reintroduction was an inspired move by GN.
But what's more important is that it is a bat after all, and therefore you want to know how well it works and use it. Well, given its weight I pthink it picks up well, although I know that a number of people really don't like the pick up on these things. It does feel a bit odd standing in a net with a bat with no spine, but let's face it, you don't look at the back of the bat that much, and spend more time looking at the ball, so that's not really an issue.
In terms of performance, I was pleasantly suprised. It's not the best willow in the world, and it certainly isn't the best bat that I own, by quite some way (James Laver and Instinct still own that accolade, closely followed by Mongoose), but it isn't, per se a bad bat. One thing it most definitely has is a middle, which was a nice change compared to some of the old ones I've used in the past. Against the guys bowling nicely in the slot, it was very easy to hit them straight back over their heads, and I didn't need a lot of effort to hit the ball hard. It also felt like an easy bat to paddle the ball off the legs and on the onside with.
I'd say that this rethink of the Scoop is, all in all, a positive experience. I know that some don't like it, but I can understand why GN re-released it, and think they have done a good job. I suspect that with a further hour or so on the mallet, this will improve, as light seam marks were left on the face.
I'm not sure, for me at least, it is the best bat ever made, but I can imagine that all those who bought them will get plenty of productive use, and those who took advantage of that PDC offer got, in truth, a complete bargain.
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Topic: The GN100... A design classic in a modern world... (Read 8271 times)