Afternoon, this feature on cricket bats might be of interest to the Forum. It's an overview really rather than an in-depth bat review but includes my top six based on a visit to the Lord's trade show back in Sept allied with visits to cricket shops and bats sent to the Cricket Yorkshire office. Hopefully the article also gives some sensible thought to grains, grades of wood, using podshavers, getting bats hand made and the mounting price of bats. The top six this time happen to be mainstream brands but I'll definitely be featuring more niche companies in 2014 too. Plans afoot for interviews, reviews galore on the Cricket Yorkshire site.
http://www.cricketyorkshire.com/cricket-bat-review/Cricket Bat Designs: Six of the Best – Cricket Bat Review
The Lord’s Trade Show back in September was an opportunity to sneak a preview at the cricket bats that will be fighting for your attention for next season.
Bling with bats seems to be de rigeur as competition to catch the eye hots up. The trend for thick edges the width of a Californian giant redwood show no sign of abating.
Of course, the podshavers themselves who artfully shape the clefts and hone them into weapons to make bowlers whimper want us to concentrate on grade of wood; how a bat has been conjured from willow.
The weight and balance of a bat; how it feels in your hand, how it picks up is your prerogative. It has to feel just right and ‘ping’ off the meat of the blade like a wizard’s wand.
Except cricket bats are so much more than functional lumps of wood; they’re expensive, desirable and rarely bought on a whim. These are status symbols for the muddy whites brigade.
Some spend hours sanding and coating theirs with linseed oil and talking to them; some sleep with them under their pillows (usually the slightly eccentric opener in your XI); these are the tools of the trade that will unlock your inner Sehwag and skyrocket your batting average to Bradman-esque proportions.
Cricket bats need to appeal to your personality; they need to leap out from a crowded shop or shimmering computer screen and slap you round the chops. They need to be understated; brash; colourful or minimalist; futuristic or dye-in-the-wool and that connection, however it happens, is over quicker than a Lasith Malinga yorker rearranging your poles.
So, we thought we’d scour the internet for cricket bat designs that scream elegant sophistication and brutal slaughter out in the middle; here’s what caught our eye in our alternative cricket bat review…
wisden_150
1. Wisden 150 Limited Edition Cricket Bat (£395)
As bat names go, which is surely part of the journey (however subliminal) towards picking a new blade, the ‘Wisden 150’ has all the va-va-voom of a Robin Reliant…but the guardians of the most famous, yellow dust-jacketed book on planet earth are not marketing men, you suspect.
The ‘Supersonic Sesquicentennial’ perhaps? Work with me here, people.
If the name is nondescript, the bat design overwhelmingly wins on style and uncluttered design. It is bold, easy on the eye and does something remarkable. The star of the show is the bat itself; no stickers; no glow-in-the dark neon or industrial edge.
The batting artisan wielding the Wisden 150 will thrash a double hundred by mid-afternoon and settle down with the Times crossword, while the butler loads up the scones. This bat will double your IQ just by looking at it or your money back.
The plain black handle is a throwback to a time when WG Grace was in his pomp and with embossed gold Wisden 150 logo and only that select number made, this is a cricket bat that purrs at you seductively. We want ten, please.
mongoose_torque
2. Mongoose 2013 ToRQ Super Premium Cricket Bat (£224.25)
Mongoose have settled into the cricket equipment market like a moggie happily flexing its claws into a blanket. Its short-handle innovation, the MMi3, was akin to marking territory and the ToRQ with Marcus Trescothick’s endorsement has been the more mainstream offering and the CoR3 a conventional bat with a longer handle.
The brand is introducing a new bat The Rebel for 2014 with ‘massive edges, big bow, flat face and huge middle combined with a full back (no concaving)’ but it’s the ToRQ that’s made us do a double-take.
We’re giving the ToRQ a thumbs up for its design (unconvinced of West Yorkshire when it comes to the MMi3 I’m afraid) and aesthetics. Mongoose have got the whole grungy; daring, alternative thing going on but the purple works well and they haven’t gone to town with the bat stickers; showing almost restraint.
M&H amplus
3. Millichamp and Hall Amplus MKII Cricket Bat (£236.75)
The Taunton-based brand Millichamp and Hall is one I know well from school days when their bats were reverently passed around the changing room like a bar of gold and talked about in hushed tones.
Branding speaks to us all on a personal level; it’s safe to assume some reading this will vehemently disagree and have their own preferences; wouldn’t it be dull if we all thought the same thing. But from this corner of Yorkshire, M&H come across as stylish, classical and luxury.
The Amplus boasted a high middle, hefty edges, and a deft balance when wafting it around the Lord’s marquee. Personally, the silver works better than say the new Mongoose Rebel but each to their own and all that.
Salix Torque
4. Salix Torque Performance Bat (£225)
Andrew Kember at Salix has been producing award-winning handcrafted cricket bats for many moons and the Torque Performance is a dazzler. A classic design with aqua blue reflective decal stickers on matt finish give the hint of an ink pen nib; it manages to be both low-key and a bit of a showpony.
A flatter face and larger edges (around 38mm for the bat badgers out there) gives it a meaty profile while the grade one plus English willow certainly doesn’t scrimp on raw materials to get you that triple hundred in a session.
If straight grains aligned in perfect harmony are what rocks your world, we imagine the Salix Torque will fit the bill nicely. In which case, you probably also sleep with a bottle of linseed oil; not that we’re judging…
Bradbury
5. Bradbury 400 Series Bat (£208)
This isn’t a new bat for 2014 but it makes our shortlist by virtue of its mid-range price, quirks in materials (more of that in a moment) and the fact it’s a blade with top-notch ‘ping for your pound.’ Copyright Cricket Yorkshire when that crops up all over social media later….
The shape of a bat is unlikely to be a deciding factor when purchasing but the Bradbury 400 is all in with its concave shaping and that lends balance and weight distribution to the bat.
Perth-based Bradbury have a simplistic branding that is a world apart from the T20 generation. Refreshingly honest, no frills. Warning. This bat cannot be seen from space and does not glow in the dark.
It is, however, crafted from grade two willow which rather boldly can show more natural features such as specks and redwood. This model may feature the rare and highly sought-after butterfly stain willow.
A point about the willow grades. It is easy to get slightly obsessed, perhaps even snooty, about only picking grade one willow bats.
The truth, one suspects, is that many of us honest journeymen probably won’t appreciate the difference when carving it over point for four with eyes clamped shut on a Saturday.
The butterfly stain willow is purely cosmetic. Again, many of us tend to treat any variance in colour of willow and perceived blemishes as faults. In this case, the butterfly stain is down to pruning and frost damage and actually adds strength to the bat and gives longer life.
Don’t take our word for it, that’s from the horse’s mouth. Actually, JS Wright who grow a vast amount of the willow that ends up becoming the world’s cricket bat supply.
In this age of flawlessness and perfection, it’s heartening to find a bat that does the business; doesn’t cost the earth and looks the real deal; embracing the variance in the wood.
gray-nicolls e41
6. Gray-Nicolls Obliviion e41 (£255)
We recently gave away one of these bats. Actually, strictly speaking, it’s still in the Cricket Yorkshire office and that’s not entirely coincidental. The postman might have to prise it out of our hands. What’s to like? Simple, elegant branding that is distinctively Gray-Nicolls with its black and silver reflective stickering.
The bat feels lighter than it is and weight distribution is lower down the bat which gives the cursory impression that any healthy connection will swat the ball into another postcode. It boasts 41mm edges; not ideal for snicko but indicative of a move across the cricket bat industry to sate prospective bat buyers’ thirst for whacking great edges.
This isn’t an entirely rose-tinted review, however, the bat handle grip is horrible and it’s amazing how many brands don’t seem to give this area much thought. True, you can pick up a different one for a fiver…but should you have to?
STILL NOT CONVINCED’….those brands where we call a spade a spade….or a cricket bat a bloody shovel…
Gray Nicolls
What on earth? The e41 Obliviion’s appearance in our top six suggests we are divided over Gray Nics. Gray Nicolls can afford to be many things to many people and it is a relief that the likes of the Legend and Dynadrive – which are glorious – have been left untampered with.
Not so The Maverick, Powerbow, Vortex and Kaboom which look like they have been designed by an overactive, angry toddler with a coloured crayon.
The A61 is the compromise and shows what colour and restraint can achieve.
Spartan Cricket
Spartan have come onto the cricket scene with all the subtlety of a Chris Gayle innings. They will not go quietly into the night you imagine and the bat designs are square, unflinching and brash, which will appeal to some and others not so much.
There’s no doubt they are a trending brand and sustaining that interest beyond the Ashes will be intriguing to watch unfold; particularly with relation to the UK market (they’re well-established in Australia). The endorsements of run machine Clarke and rejuvenated Mitchell Johnson; not to mention Darren Bravo with his double-hundred, make it a decent media month for Spartan.
I spent quite a long time at Lord’s manhandling the MC1000 while the Spartan Managing Director Kunal patiently answered a barrage of questions. it’s a good-looking bat with 3D printed chrome decals in baby blue which have partially won me round.
The other bat designs by Spartan don’t push my design buttons at all and have to admit to being rather astonished there’s a grade five model and that’s it around £100. Michael Clarke posing like Austin Powers in the catalogue did nothing to win me over.
Our general rule of thumb is if you’re going to name a brand after an ancient civilisation, don’t slap flags of saint George all over the place. Just saying…
Adidas
Adidas have proved enormously popular in the realm of teamwear with clubs rushing to deck themselves out like the England team. The cricket bats are more of an acquired taste on pure aesthetics though whether I fit neatly into the three-striped target demographic is worthy of debate. I suspect not.
Celebrity endorsements like KP will doubtless shift units in their quadrillions but for a brand that likes to celebrate individuality, the bat designs have yet to prove alluring.
Thoughts on the future
There is a wider debate to be had about the cost of cricket bats; some of which are seemingly on a par with energy companies when it comes to any connection to reality. There used to be a time when £200 for an adult cricket bat was pushing the boat out, now that’s a mid-range price and neither is £350-£400 the most expensive bat on the shelf.
Grade one willow is not a premium that should come with a scary price tag (and that clearly varies on personal circumstance). Whatever bat you go for and whatever budget you’ve got to play with, the good news is that if you bother to do your research, consumers has a wealth of choice at their fingertips.
A bat is usually an investment for a few years so put in the hard yards off the field and who knows, hopefully it will pay with by putting a firework under your batting average in 2014.
One alternative; taking it to the opposite of your usual retail experience is to get a hand-made bat made. That’s bound to cost the earth, right? No, actually…
Whatever county you live in, there are talented podshavers (batmakers who hand-craft clefts into fearsome finished products) amongst you. They will rustle up a bat with your own requirements in mind and while some offer a bespoke, premium service, it needn’t be prohibitively expensive.
Get to know these people, they are a niche breed of master craftsmen; speaking as someone who has seen a cleft magically become a finished bat over hours.
So…there you have it. Our top six cricket bats along with a few gripes and demands; it a personal shortlist and entirely subjective but a journey that was thoroughly entertaining to research.
Cricket Yorkshire will be exploring many other brands in 2014 from the established heavyweights to niche, up and coming bat companies.
- See more at:
http://www.cricketyorkshire.com/cricket-bat-review/#sthash.y6cXcao0.dpuf
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