Went to Morrant today to get the dukes stuff. Got top of the range test match quality batting and wicket keeping gear (Prestige range). Enjoy:
Pro Century Wheelie
The Bag easily fits the gear and is very stylish/traditional too, with maroon and cream colours - a bit like the M&H tan leather bags.
Prestige Batting Gloves
Classic design with white and yellow colour scheme and some black.
Silver 3 piece sidebar protection on both gloves. Thumb protection is great - very hard! Finishing is above average but not what I would expect from 'test match quality' gear.
Pittards leather palms are extremely soft and very supple. Its like my hands are resting on some marshmallows!
Multiple sections offer good flexibility and grip, but not as good as I would like (could be less stiff so I need to break into them first). Maybe there is TOO much colour on them?
Hand snugly fit into glove. design on wristband looks nice. The towelling is on both sides and feels very VERY soft, almost as good as the Kookaburras
Prestige batting Pads
Great design - the knee roll really adds some class to the traditional look. Love the minimalistic use of colours on the front.
Side wings are a nice shape and provide good coverage.
Padding is sufficient enough. Pads feels soft and ready to go!
The mesh is comfortable and the yellow black cross-hatch design is great. Pads wrap right around my legs because of this soft padding.
Cant get over the trim on the side wings - great addition.
Logo looks sooo nice behind that shiny plastic fitting!
Prestige Wicket Keeping Gloves
Made by SS? Very similar design to their gloves! Black and yellow looks nice and the leather used is pretty supple as well. Finger protection is more than enough for county level cricket.
Like the continuation of the black/yellow on the rubber. Palms have gel padding which is also very soft. Octopus rubber used - not of highest quality but should do fine.
Best thing is, they are not the gauntlets made by Adidas, GM and Slazenger - hands fit right into these and they are quite lightweight (for a keeping glove)
Close up of the octopus rubber. Standard of rubber is ok - not as good as the Kookaburra Brad Haddin ones but Kookaburra are league apart anyway!
Prestige Wicket Keeping Pads
Like the batting pads, these offer good protection and feel quite light weight. No cane involved - just a HDF construction.
With a thin design, these pads leave the Adidas Pro ones miles behind - much more comfortable and easy to use!
Same mesh padding used on back as in batting pads. Love the matching combinations!
Inners
From right to left - Chamois WK padded inners, Cotton padded WK inners, batting inners. All very good sizes and hands fit well into them. Like the design of the WK inners - the towelling matches the gloves - great for people like me who lke matching kit [
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FINAL VERDICTDukes are pretty much unknown in the cricketing world, atleast not for their batting and wicket keeping equipment, so buying from them was a risk, but the guys at morrant (own Dukes now) have it all sorted.
All the materials, all the technology, none of the prices that the big boys use.
I GIVE THESE 8/10 - Batting gloves could be less stiff and better octopus rubber could be used on the wk glovesPS - I was going to buy the bats but they ARE NOT up to the standards I want - Feel like they could break easily - though their top of the range is for £115 and could compensate for that![/size=1]
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Topic: Dukes Prestige Cricket Equipment Review (Read 17973 times)