I will add a little review of my own as I was there.
There were more powerful bats on show when we tried this bat on Wednesday, although the Midas more than held it's own. This in itself is extremely impressive considering it has only had an hour of knocking in and will get better and better as it's played in!!
It was being tried at the same time as fully played in bats which are flyers and a couple of which are very special.
In fact, I am looking forward to trying the Midas again once it's had a few hours of playing in as I suspect it will be a absolute weapon! The middle is sooooooo long and strong already, and driving the ball was ever so satisfying
I also played a couple of cross bat shots to see how it faired and they were pretty easy to time as the bat has a great pickup and was an absolute wand to use.
Because I normally use bats with more modern profiles and more of a bow, I find that traditional profiles feel strange and take a little getting used to before I start to feel comfortable. But I felt pretty comfortable from almost the first ball and found myself driving and middling the ball beautifully.
Performance: From a performance point of view, this is promising to be an excellent bat and I’m thinking that Luke may be struggling to decide which to take out to the middle as his main match bat!
Feel: Feel and pickup is surprisingly good for a bat with a lower middle. And the middle itself is extremely generous, and even makes me look good!
Finishing: Salix set the standard yardstick pretty high on finishing their bats, and the Midas falls short of that standard…..but most bats fall short of that standard so no disgrace there! But the Midas finishing on this bat was of a decent standard and was as good as any other bat there (with the exception of the Salix)
Looks: Loads of grains are like Marmite. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there are lots on this blade! There is also loads of heartwood on this particular blade which some will love and others won’t.
Stickers are also a very personal taste – these are not bright and shiny…just nice and subtle. They blend nicely with the blade and the opposition loudmouths would have to find other areas of your game to sledge!
Value: I believe this bat was offered on a special offer initial release price. From the price paid, this will turn out to be a performance bargain! It is very good in all areas of the review and I hope we got to see the other Helios profiles reviewed soon as I’d be interested to see if they offer the same standard as this bat. All three of us testing the bat loved it and there were no negatives from the initial review.
So to summarise………….. an excellent match quality bat for a great price. It is bats such as this one that make me wonder why on Earth people want big-edged large profile bats. Traditional profile bats like this one need to live on!