Well, the 343 had its first net today. But onto that in a bit.
Prior to the net, I thought that I'd paid enough for it that I really should knock the bat in. I'm normally a bit rubbish at this, so I started off trying to roll the edges on the bath. When I realised I was making no discernible difference, I got the mallet out.
I bashed the edges and the toe, then moved onto the middle. The thing that stood out for me was the complete lack of denting with the mallet. B3 hadn't to my knowledge knocked the bat in, but it appeared not to to need it.
Having spent at most 15 mins on this, I thought, "Stuff it" and just took it to nets.
I had a 20 minute net and the first 15 minutes were truly awful. I was timing nothing, not really hitting it and looking awful. Then something clicked and the bat and I came to life. I nailed one cover driven out of it so hard that I broke the stumps at the other end.
The shape really does have a massive middle, and having got used to it, wow! This will be my match bat this season. The result of the latest 5 mins was that it got a lot of attention when I came out of the net. I'm very pleased, both with the bat and that I didn't have to knock it in, which is truly amazing!
This is what the blade looked like post net:
There are almost no seam marks. Astonishing!
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