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[JK Lewis]

Afternoon all!

Raining here in Suffolk, the season is all over, so I thought I'd briefly wrap this up as promised. The bat made it through, quite comfortably really, it was responding much better at the end of the season than the beginning. This makes sense as there was zero knocking in prior to the first game. At season end, it weighed about 1.5oz less than at the beginning. I batted 12 times, scored just over 300 runs at about 30, with 2 50's.

In my opinion the storm damage made no difference to performance, though at my level of talent it's hard to suggest that I bring the best or worst out of any piece of kit! There are some good looking cracks on the face and edges. Personally, I think that there is a correlation between these cracks and the lines of storm damage, but it's tough to be sure. You need to see it in your hand to really judge, but anyway here's some final photos for you to consider.

Overall, it was an interesting experiment. I might take off another 3-4 oz in the close season, it is a bit of a lump to be honest. Alternatively, I might make another bat. Decisions, decisions...

[kaustav]

Thanks for sharing your experiment. It was an interesting read. So it is going to be a feature in your living room now?

[JK Lewis]

Thanks for sharing your experiment. It was an interesting read. So it is going to be a feature in your living room now?

Hahaha well I guess my wife might say 'it's me or the bat.' As I said earlier, decisions decisions... 

[kaustav]

Hahaha well I guess my wife might say 'it's me or the bat.' As I said earlier, decisions decisions... 

The bat. The bat 

[Biggie Smalls]

Could your next experiment be to use an underpressed ('pro pressed') bat and see how that lasts ?
Thanks for this thread , good read.

[JK Lewis]

Could your next experiment be to use an underpressed ('pro pressed') bat and see how that lasts ?
Thanks for this thread , good read.

That's an interesting idea. Just need to find a batmaker who does actually press differently for pros and is prepared to do the same for me. I'll look into it. Alternatively I could just go with a completely unpressed cleft, and see what happens.

[Kulli]

Or over dry a cleft and see if it does give an improved performance?

[JK Lewis]

Or over dry a cleft and see if it does give an improved performance?

That's good too. Probably getting to a stage where we would need a better batsman than me, who practises and plays more games than i do, to really understand the results.

[JK Lewis]

Afternoon all! It's almost a year since I completed this thread, so time for a brief follow up. The original test bat was retired at the end of last season, and still takes pride of place in the garage as my dear wife won't allow me to hang it over the mantlepiece. So, for this season I made a new bat, from another cleft from the same tree, with the same storm damage lines. Batting yesterday for the final time this season, I crushed a massive off drive, and this was the result:



I always said I would be fair and honest with this test. The first bat survived, the second did not. I have one final cleft from that tree, so I guess the 2020 season will be decisive!

[ch1p]

Brilliant experiment and thanks for the write up - it made excellent reading.

The only bat i've ever had go catastrophically went right through the middle of a knot in the wood, it split directly through the middle of the knot extending all the way through the blade. It was also Kashmir Willow which might have made the difference.

All the best for 2020.

[Mfarank]

Afternoon all! It's almost a year since I completed this thread, so time for a brief follow up. The original test bat was retired at the end of last season, and still takes pride of place in the garage as my dear wife won't allow me to hang it over the mantlepiece. So, for this season I made a new bat, from another cleft from the same tree, with the same storm damage lines. Batting yesterday for the final time this season, I crushed a massive off drive, and this was the result:



I always said I would be fair and honest with this test. The first bat survived, the second did not. I have one final cleft from that tree, so I guess the 2020 season will be decisive!

So we can conclude that its not a myth afterall. It has the potential to break and you might get lucky. Beyond that its just a game of probabilities

[JK Lewis]

So we can conclude that its not a myth afterall. It has the potential to break and you might get lucky. Beyond that its just a game of probabilities

That's probably right @Mfarank , yes. What I would add is that in my opinion, when a reputable batmaker - and I don't include myself in that (!) - offers a storm damaged bat at a fantastic price, it is definitely worth considering. I'll just get back to the workshop.