Quite interesting to show the bowed face that they seem to be quite proud of. This on a flatter faced bat that was being made...
And I found their pressing machine pretty clever - careful pressing techniques is of paramount importance for Andrew Kember and his team and is arguably the main reason Salix bats perform so well...
And then we spent a couple of hours hand picking our bats. Andrew was extremely helpful throughout the process and explained in detail what he felt were the best bats and why. We both scrutinized the looks of each bat, which in the case of the grade 1s was only part-shaped clefts without handles fitted. Then we both gave them all a good whack with the mallet to find out if the performance matched the looks in each case (it didn't always)... This part of the day is much better presented in the videos that we shot - so check our YouTube channel in the next week or so to see why...
Here are a couple of the Pods we selected:
We hand picked a couple of junior bats as well, and all the bats got marked up with our initials on at the end, as you can see:
And, lo and behold, here are all our selections for our first pre-season stock delivery. We will have all of these in February, when they'll be finished, gripped and stickered up, a process that would normally be a lot quicker, but we agreed that Feb would be the best time...
It was great to see bat making up close and personal (which, again, will be better illustrated in our videos, as there are of course lots of other aspects not covered here). Andrew, Vicky and the others were all very welcoming, making us feel at home. My only criticism was that it wasn't the warmest place of work, so if you're intending to pay them a visit, make sure to bring your thermals!
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Topic: Visiting Salix (Read 28259 times)