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[Johnny]

I was speaking to CF today. If I talk to him again this week I'll ask the question! When I ordered my Premier Cru I specified a lightweight bat, so rather than expecting a monstrous bat I did say to him I'd prefer thin edges and a bigger swell if he needed to lose some weight from somewhere.

I consequently got a rounded bat face, so I think that because he knew I wasn't hung up in edges he didn't use the flatter roller.

That said, my Laver was my first flat faced bat, and after getting used to it I loved it! I think it feels like you're presenting a bigger surface to the ball and actually makes the bat feel wider (weird I know)

[trypewriter]

My CF (Thanks Pete!) is a stunning bat but I reckon it would still be stunning without a flat face....it's just perfectly pressed and suits my game (and a lot of other peoples!) I really don't think the flat face makes any difference at all to performance. Even if it does make it slightly easier to place the ball, I very much doubt any of us are good enough to notice that difference in accuracy!

Ha ha - actually hitting the damned ball is a problem for me - not to mention even managing to get a game in at the moment.

[Liam-SCCC]

I hate flat faces!

[petehosk]

I hate flat faces!

I hear they're not overly keen on you either fella! 

[PedalsMcgrew]

I was speaking to CF today. If I talk to him again this week I'll ask the question! When I ordered my Premier Cru I specified a lightweight bat, so rather than expecting a monstrous bat I did say to him I'd prefer thin edges and a bigger swell if he needed to lose some weight from somewhere.

I consequently got a rounded bat face, so I think that because he knew I wasn't hung up in edges he didn't use the flatter roller.

That said, my Laver was my first flat faced bat, and after getting used to it I loved it! I think it feels like you're presenting a bigger surface to the ball and actually makes the bat feel wider (weird I know)

I'd be interested to know his thoughts Johnny, I was on the CF website looking at the CF bats and I was trying to work out exactly what profile of Prem Cru my one is. Are they all different or based on the other profiles and do they all have flat faces or is it optional? His website is a bit confusing really...have a word mate! 

[Liam-SCCC]

What I got from my chat with mr brimble is that the only benefit of flat faced bats is bigger edges

[Johnny]

Spoke to my batmaker of choice today. He confirmed that the only rationale of the flat face is to give the appearance of bigger edges.

He also said, that having experimented with flat faces for a while he seemed to get more bats returned with breakages, so he ditched his flat face roller in favour of a convex one.

Seems the flat faces were popular (not to mention trendy for 2013) so he's in the process of re-acquiring a flat face roller (which he'll be using on my 2 new bats )

[uknsaunders]

might being dense here, but if you have a flat face bat then you move the middle to the edges (in effect) and therefore it does have some benefit for us less gifted players. I agree the volume of wood remains unchanged, but it's positioning doesn't.

[toby176]

I like flat faced bats equal to, if not more then some rounded ones both aesthetically and feel wise.

[petehosk]

The first real flat-faced bat I have used was the Charlie French Premier Cru which was used in the Batoff - took a bit of getting used to! But once you get used to them, they are easy enough to use. But I think it helped that the CF went like a train! Now I don't mind using them at all!