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[joeljonno]

Hi

This bat is about 18 months old now and it is the 3rd time this has happened.  There have been a couple of small splits which were fixed, but this is large.

I can fix it, but I want to know why it happens.  It has had the GM toe guard on at all times, partially removed to fix the splits but then re-glued down.

Any advice as to why would be most appreciated.

[tate035]

Do you tap your bat on the ground during your stance? Same thing happened 2 my sons bat and I put it down to him getting the bottom of the bat wet. It then dried out, followed by in my opinion him banging it on the ground whilst waiting for bowler 2 start his delivery.

I now boat varnish the bottom of his bats and get him 2 hit his bat into the back of his shoe and not the ground.

[joeljonno]

It's not mine, but I don't think he bangs it excessively. Is hasn't really got wet because it has had a toe guard on it at all times. That was my first thought.

[ajmw89]

If it's not tapping damage, it could be from continual use of the toe and trying to hit the ball too hard.

[joeljonno]

Maybe, but I would expect the crack to go the other way generally. I guess he may have a bit of both or something.

Anyway, I don't need to do owt else except gluing and clamping it to fix it?

[ajmw89]

Glueing and clamping should do the trick.

[Kulli]

Gm toe guards don't do a very good job of keeping the toe dry as there's a gap between the antiscuff and the toe guard, and water, being fairly small, is inconsiderate enough to sneak through this gap.

[Bez013]

I've had a couple go like this and I do tap quite hard but I don't use a toe guard on my bats and tend to see more damage at the front half of the toe before it get's to this stage.  He might find that the split will keep opening up but I just used glue and a knife to open the crack slightly and then clamped the crack shut and wound some fiberglass tape round tightly.

[coady123]

what type of GM bat is it ? if it is high quality like original it can be down to using a soft willow with a hard ball which will cause the bat to crack , my friend has one had it for 2 days and the same happened to his and this has occurred around 3 times this season

[Hammer Cricket]

Being in the bat business ive found out that sometimes it doesnt matter how good the piece of willow is, its sometimes just breaks. Its sad but true. but on the bright side in most cases its fixable.

[Chad]

I hit quite low on the bat, so toe it more often than desired. As a result, a very minor version of this has happened to a couple of my bats. It never gets wider than 4cm, (much more of a controlled drive player) so I think ajmw89 is right, perhaps your friend is hitting the ball hard! I would glue it up and seal it with some shoe-goo. My friend has broken two bats in the last year on the inside edge toe area, I'm planning to stick a toe guard on the face of the bat to prolong the life of his bats!

Slightly off topic, but does anyone find that GMs tend to delaminate quite often? Maybe it's just because the folk at my club use their GMs like crazy, but I find they are at their most responsive when that sound starts coming, and most of them do reach that level.

[coady123]

yeah iv found that , my old gm split across the toe as has my friends who is a sponsored player by gm goes through around 4 bats a season because of them breaking very easily

[Kulli]

Being in the bat business ive found out that sometimes it doesnt matter how good the piece of willow is, its sometimes just breaks. Its sad but true. but on the bright side in most cases its fixable.

What do companies like yourself do with returned bats?It's something I've always wondered. Obviously there'll be plenty returned that aren't repairable, but there must also be plenty that are but get replaced anyway.

[mr_wickets]

I've seen the toe go like this on bats when really hard cheap balls are being used in the nets. Suppose thats the main reason to have a net bat!

[joeljonno]

what type of GM bat is it ? if it is high quality like original it can be down to using a soft willow with a hard ball which will cause the bat to crack , my friend has one had it for 2 days and the same happened to his and this has occurred around 3 times this season

It's a Epic 808 5 star.  Could be that then. Gonna glue it tonight and see how it is for Saturday.