Evening guys, whilst the snow has been falling all day today i decided to go and have a little net with one of my new Gray Nicolls bats. The A61.
I bought this about a month ago from Morrant. This is the lower 400 model and cost £114.99. The bat has the standard Gray nicolls scale grip which is on on there bats and gives IMO great grip and feel. The bat has a semi oval handle that is quite small and feels very good in the hands.
This bat has 35mm edges on both sides. I believe the A61 is named as it has a 61mm spine height, but please correct me if im wrong. This bat has 5 fairly straight and evenly spaced grains and comes with a clear protective face sheet.
Now this bat pinged very nicely today. Used against a bowling machine at 50-60 mph and had it quite well pitched up. The bat comes pre-prep by GN and i have given the edges and toe about half hour with a mallet. My mate that i was with is a good left arm off spiner so faced hime for about an hour as well. The flat face seemed to go very well and off centre shots did still seem to ping very well. The bat did sound very good as well with a nice solid sound when you found the middle.
The A61 came into its own though in the pick up. This bat weighs 2.8 which in its own right is quite light. This feels like its about 2.3 or 2.4. For a bat with 35mm edges and 61mm spine how Gray Nicolls have got this model to pick up so well is beyond me. You actually feel that you could bat all day with this. If you want a big light bat i think you will struggle to find anything better at the lower price range. As i mentioned above when you add in the power as well this is a great great bat.
There are a few down points, mainly the finish to be honest. The bat does have matching edges unlike the bat that Paul had last week. The stickers were not applied that well and the grip tape was already coming away when i picked it up from Morrant. But all in all i am very happy with it.
Thanks for reading my first real review. Here are a few pics