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[Buzz]

Taken from the Blenheim thread.

I think there is no doubt that on this forum people care who makes bats, but the vast majority of cricketers don't care. This is exemplified by the bulk of bat sales coming from the major brands who use multiple bat makers/machines.

Thankfully (for us at least!) though, most cricketers aren't big enough badgers to care - perhaps because the majority of individuals just buy a bat on the basis of how it feels and goes. To be entirely honest our target market isn't people who specifically want a bat made by person X. Because if that's what they want they should just go direct to person X. Instead we want to build a brand that provides great quality gear and is renowned for doing so.

Should we care? surely pick up/balance, performance and looks (as well as price) matters.

but what if certain batmakers just make better bats... personally I cannot make up my mind which side of the fence I sit on. In reality I think it has changed since joining the forum - i.e. I have learned a little and thus think I know a lot and therefore want access to the best. fortunately we have in a number of different ways we have access to many of the best here

[Manormanic]

I think it does matter - most of my bats in one form or another are TK made.  This is not to say Tim never makes a stinker, or that noone else makes gems, its just that I feel I have a massively improved chance of a genuinely excellent bat this way.

Likewise, have just taken Matt up on his May offer.  Not a huge fan of the H4L branding, though the yellow Hattori stuff is growing on me, but his rep as a batmaker is such that I want to try one out...

[tim2000s]

There's probably a reason why in my clearing out of my bats, I have been left with a couple of Lavers, an Instinct a Puma Ballistic 6000, an H4L a couple of mongeese and a Hunts County...

[Liam-SCCC]

I think it does matter - most of my bats in one form or another are TK made.  This is not to say Tim never makes a stinker, or that noone else makes gems, its just that I feel I have a massively improved chance of a genuinely excellent bat this way.

Likewise, have just taken Matt up on his May offer.  Not a huge fan of the H4L branding, though the yellow Hattori stuff is growing on me, but his rep as a batmaker is such that I want to try one out...

How do you know it's a TK made? He can't make every bat that comes out of his workshop

[Manormanic]

How do you know it's a TK made? He can't make every bat that comes out of his workshop

This is true, but you figure he puts his reputation to it by it coming from his workshop, don't you?

[tushar sehgal]

I think if you know who the bat maker is then it makes it easy but then again I havent heard of a bat maker who wasn't fantastic. We all have favorites and good reasons for them to be favs.

To me if i am buying a top of the range bat from a known bat maker or a well established brand I expect the bat to perform simply because its a matter of reputation for both the bat maker and brand. You might come across a plank but more like to have the issue resolved with bat maker and/or the brand if you have paid good money for it. All decent brands have some warranty...

Difference is what they do with lower end bats, there are brands out there who'e lower end stuff is not really all that good and that where a good bat maker shines imo..

I have my favs now but before joining the forums i didn't care about who made the bat, it was all about which bat felt good / was in my budget...i have had good bats, great bats and horrible bats before here...

[Joe]

If I was going to a shop and buying a bat, I wouldn't care who made it if it pinged and picked up, but if I was buying online I would as I would not want to buy a bat unless I know it will do well.

[Ciaran]

To the general cricketing world - they dont care, they know very little and they just go by price tag as a gauge of how good something is.

On the other hand on this forum, we all care. We buy from people who we trust. Trust is earnt through reputation, and reputation comes from two ways. 1) We know the bat maker. 2) We have seen many other bats from this brand so trust its quality. Therefore a new brand entering the Market needs to do one of two things. 1) Have an experienced trusted bat maker. 2) Give special offers so that people are interested in the brand so that we begin to see other quality bats.

Personally, I am incredibly unfussy in terms of who makes my bats. However I do know that my next personal bat will come from 1 of three sources. 1) Instinct, 2) BB and 3) SAF.

[Ciaran]

I should add that most people in the world seem to suffer from the "truth effect" just because they see it everywhere in advertisments and so on they believe that it is better. They also fall for the sponsership system way to easily. This is especially true with most cricketers.

[Tom]

How do you know it's a TK made? He can't make every bat that comes out of his workshop

T W Keeley is the company name, which is often abbreviated to TK.

[Ryan]

Que everyone googling T W Keeley ltd lol

[Ryan]

Personally I feel that smaller brands provide a very good product at an affordable price, large manufacturers do make some lovely bats but are very expensive.

[sgcricket]

i will go with joe on this. if i am buying online, i will go for a brand with good reviews. still it wont matter to me who actually made the bat.

[Johnny]

I definitely covet some bats made by specific batmakers; would love a millichamp, or a Keeley, or a bat made by Andy at Safbats

And I really wanted a Laver and a CF (which I now own)

However, not knowing the batmaker wouldn't put me off other bats. If I had the cash I'd be happy to buy the H4L Stickered bat that Sam is currently selling, or one of the blenheim bats that have been on show.

And whilst some forum members might well think they know who has made their bats, they might be surprised! I know of one brand that's popular on the forum who established themselves using a renowned batmaker, but then changed to a different supplier, and it didn't seem to effect their reputation.

Also brands such as Laver&Wood and Salix are known to train apprentices - these apprentices have to start making bats at some point, so I expect that some of the bats leaving those workshops are not necessarily made by the head batmaker

[PedalsMcgrew]

Everyone seems to be missing the point here!

If I go to Laver & Wood to buy a bat I know that it was made by them (either an apprentice or the man himself) If I go to Hawk then I get the same. CF.............the same! Lots of other companies the same.

But what happens when I go to a new company who (possibly for contractual reasons) are unwilling/unable to actually say where they are sourcing their bats from? This company has no track record, I know of no one using their gear and the prices they are asking are 'premium'. That is the ONLY reference I have as to what the bats might actually be like!