Having owned 2 English bats a Bulldog Growler and a Warsop Platinum this time it had to be an Asian brand.Asad certainly knows his stuff and had no issues with me firing countless emails at all hours of the day and incredibly he seemed to be permanently online!
Both bats arrived well packed and in good condition with their own covers.The BAS has 35mm edges, 12 grains with heartwood, a really thick profile weighing 2.9 and picked up 2.7!.The stickers look the business and were obviously better quality than those on the average BAS bats and the finishing was excellent.The willow is incredibly soft and I just know that this will fly.After knocking it in for a week and fitting a Hammer edge sheet I ventured into the nets and YES it does ping off the middle nicely.I do feel that this is way off its potential and needs loads more knocking in.Reminds me of a Bulldog Growler from Kieron which was average the first season and blinding the next! Hope that this will unleash its potential within another week of knocking!
The AS custom G200 was Uzis, brand new and knocked in completely.I immediately disliked the poor quality stickers but it was good of Asad to do this for me as it had some Kook ones on initially.This bat had a serious bow to it, never seen anything like it and it had a thinner than usual handle.With 9 clean grains, 33mm edges and the ultimate profile weighing 210 and picked up slightly lighter.This was a great deal as I could use it immediately in a match.First ball I faced was dispatched and finished with 60 n/o.The is a certain savage instinct that kicks in when you use a bat with a thinner handle and this psycologically makes the bat feel bigger.
The BAS will have its day in the sun but I cant recommend the AS custom more as I love the profile.BAS and AS make some good bats undoubtedly and I would like to know what anyone else that has owned either of these bats think.Im not sure why the pics are so small but cheers to the chap that kindly loaded it for me.