Hi guys I popped down to Hove today after speaking to the guys at Newbery about the new Kudos. I swathe Facebook pic last week and instantly feel in love with the profile and colour scheme, no idea why it just made me think Wow. Newbery told me that the new Kudos is not officially available until the end of the month but after some begging they said I could pop down and they would see what they could do. I was told that I could pick either from pro bin of clefts or normal. I didn't think Newbery had a pro bin anymore but was told that they do but they were more expensive and not openly advertised.
So I arrived this morning at 9am sharp at hove and saw Michael and was shown the 3 Kudos bats that Tim has made so far all from clefts from there pro bin. They were 3 of the nicest lightest clefts I have ever seen, the stickers are designed in the same way as the Cenkos butwith Aqua green as the colour scheme and they look really cool and minimal. Anyway I was told these 3 will be going to the Lords trade showon Thursday and that they were then going to a Sussex player. Wasn't told which one although I did try and find out, I picked one up and fell in love with its size, profile and pick up and said I wanted this bat please. A quick phone call was made to someone and I was told that it must be my lucky day as I would be allowed to have this bat as long as I agreed to legit go to the trade show first and Newbery will send on to me, no problems I said.
So the bat I choose has dead straight grains and when I hit the face with the mallet I can honestly say the mallet almost came out of my hand the rebound was that good, there were bats from the non pro bins with more grains and bigger bits of wood but this seemed awesome in terms of performance. I was offered a few custom touches like more wood removed from back or lower spine etc choose to leave exactly as was. I put it on the scales and it weighs 2.5 in current naked stare and will finish under 2.8 with hammer edge, stickers and grip, whilst having 38mm edge, perfect
For any of you going to lords show you can see my bat there and it's has my initials C.H on the shoulder
Whilst I was there I also saw another what I assumed was another custom profile, I asked and was told that this was the new profile for the Mjolner for 2014, the same design just bigger in terms of edges etc, picked it up and again the balance was exceptional so I grabbed that as well
. I have never seen a bad Mjolner so managed to bag this as a 5 star plus a little discount
Here are some pics of my Kudos, the Mjolner and Hove ground. I am also the first customer to own a Newbery Kudos so i was tolda and had my picture taken with my bat and put on Instagram, not that I know anything about social media. Was told I had 20 likes but assume that's the bat not me