Much in a similar vein to Ian's missus, and whose resulting Pod Players looks a beauty, my wife arranged for a bat-buying odyssey (plus an afternoon at Words and Wickets) for my birthday back in September. Now, we set out on a fair Saturday morning and battled the M25 to arrive at the Salix farm and were given a nice little tour of the workshop and shown how a bat is made. Even met Soulman, but didn't realise it was him due to the lack of his many bats in the immediate vicinity. I must say he's a nice fellow.
Anyway, had a discussion with Ben about what I wanted and did the cleft selecting thing. Now, the choice came down to two belters, one beautiful cosmetically, one slightly less impressive looker but boy was it large for the weight in comparison (both were an unmolested 3.8 from memory) and felt pretty damn good with the mallet. So, I went for that one. The cleft was then shaped for me to get an idea of feel and once that was done, we reluctantly left it at that with the instructions to be 2lb 10oz and for it to have a natty turquoise grip. As an aside, the Hits Hard kit looks quality.
About a week later I received the finished bat. I think it's gorgeous - 2.10 on the nose, mid-to-low middle with very little scooping and healthy edges. Having smashed it with a mallet and hit an old ball about it goes. It REALLY goes (patented CBF review superlative checklist: tick) and I'm happy as a pig in excrement. A great day and a great bat - this is what wives are for
Hope you enjoy the pics
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Topic: Salix Pod Grade One bespoke experience (Read 3205 times)