I didn't want to post on this as I pay no sponsorship. But Im not a fan of gossip so I shall just set the record straight and can leave.
The initial concept bats were all drawn from part mades and by that i mean shouldered and toed and not pre shaped part made... there is a big difference between shaping and sanding!
7 had been made and the i needed to gauge if my thoughts on the profiles would be accepted. One was a hit and that became the Carbine, its an evolution of a shape i have a great deal of faith in and thought could be improved.
The second shape was only finalised in November and had very little testing, but the need for an English wicket low bounce bat was important.
I did try a few variations of what we came to expect, like the solution but i felt they had (just being honest) flaws. The talk of the indian tracks producing low bounce led me to look at the bats Indian players were using and also how i wanted to bat to be. I like a long arc spine for low swell bats, it (for me) aids the balance and allows you to have a level of control. The recent "reflex" shape i had made for a customer only pushed me further into pursuing this Indian profile/English swell/Marcus Spine hybrid... and the Spectre was born. The low swell on bats without the arch for me (dont forget this is my perception, my thoughts not out right fact) seems to pull at the wrist and whilst great for drives just lacks any refinement. The game had evolved and more control is needed. All i wanted to do is improve on what i could, even if that was 1 or 2 percent.
As for the bats themselves, the very first four had been pressed and handled locally and very much manually. A few can testify to the effort required to do this on your own. The press has now been moved on and it left me needing to find a person who i could trust and also trust me to use their tooling for certain days of the month. I think anyone who follows me on twitter would see those 5am starts and back home at 11pm... those are days taking cleft miles from my home to have handled and pressed.. then back home again.
The Spectre is made from scratch, from the ground up.
I have no issues stating the Carbine to get a certain "back" to it is pressed, handled, shouldered and toed to my requirements. The clefts on sticks are then turned into what you see now. Hence why sept to dec was dedicated to this.
Yes i have people to thank and they are invaluable to me, yes i needed assistance to get things to be 100% where i wanted them to be. Yes one bat is reliant on a 3rd party operating a piece of machinery to cut a shoulder and a toe. But the pressing ob every one is my thoughts, theories and work put into practice.
Resonance is the key and at some point i'll post or publish what it is that I do, some friends will know but that is as far as im prepared to go only to say that i can get a pretty uniform standard across each weight of bat. Thos that have seen, used, tested and now bought will know there is something very special about the rebound qualities of the bats. More so the Spectre as the lower middle amplifies the effect.
But no rumours please, if you have a question or anything constructive just message me.
Also understand whilst all the comments are appreciated, remember its also 18 months of someone life to plan this and thank you to all those that have commented. Its incredibly humbling and i think we have done very well for version 1.0.
i can't take all the credit hence why i took a few people out on launch day. Without the players that gave input and listend to my thoughts i'd have nothing other than a stack of concepts from back in July. I know the costs will not be to some people liking, i was very much aware of that when i looked at materials and what i wanted to put in, well before i decided what i wanted back out. I simply wanted to make something i knew was a good as i could make, i knew was an advancement on what i has seen. Ultimately if the people that buy them think its the best money they have spent then i have done my job.
This is why is was about making the best bat i thought could be made for certain players, yes the higher standard player if im honest but they were easier to group and "type". The work with ex players helped bring it all together and once again can happily state not a single penny was paid out on this... i was just fortunate to have 5 players that believed in what i was doing. So i know im known for the "stickers" but peel them away and you have a great bat. A good man once told me, "stickers do not make a bat perform any better" .Its 100% soI took that on board and made two bats that naked would play incredibly well, I just decided to dress them up in a a good looking suit.
So thanks for the comments,
M
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Topic: Affinity Cricket (Read 7593 times)