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[ca_gold]

The best finish I have ever seen on a bat is a Puma made by Sondhi, truly the best and agreed by the best in the UK.

The machining on most UK made bats is better, some of the pressing is better too.

you wouldnt happen to have pic on that bat for us to get an idea would you?

[tim2000s]

My best finished bat is probably the Laver, closely followed by the M&H.

[Cover_Drive]

It is an interesting topic to discuss! One of hte few things I have noticed is that Asian bats toe are quite weak compare to English whereas some experts have said that Asian batmaker are not pressing the bat perfectly or near to that.

In past I had thought Asian bats finishing isn't that great, however, after seeing few like (MB Malik and BAS) I was proven wrong. There finishing is more or less same as English brands.

[Talisman]

There is a difference in many companies pressing, cannot go into it as it keeps one ahead of the other.

[GJ]

The toes on english made bats do seem to be stronger than those of asian bats. But my old salix (and others have ive seen) was awful at the toe and broke badly at the toe after a season and a bits use, which was disapointing. So it does make you think...
But again the finishing on english made bats is second to none usually. Well my talisman is anyway! As is the customer service as with some companies you have the option of going custom and making it that little bit more special.

[iand123]

I thinka lot of people underestimate how many bats are made in asia. Personally i couldnt careless who makes my bat, whether it be English, Asian or anywhere else, as long as its what i want then its fine by me.

I think theres a touch of the daily mail syndrome about the opinion of asian made bats. Almost like the car industry in this country, we all like to think we make the best everyhting and when johnny foreigner comes along does it for the same quality and for cheaper we always like to feel hard done by.

Not having a pop at any English batmakers by the way, more just the general opinion towards stuff like this from society in general

[tim2000s]

As I've said before, I tend to prefer english shapes, but that's just the way I bat. I'm pretty certain that I've had asian made bats in the past. I don't know and don't care. I do think that supporting local businesses is a good idea as it fundamentally keeps money in the UK economy rather than pushing it overseas.

[Cys1]

I visited the Bellingham and Smith factory in Port Elisabeth recently and spoke at length to Mr Bellingham. They are now the sole distributers and manufacturers of Newbery cricket bats and kit in SA. He mentioned that although they try and copy the shapes available in England that the pressing of the bats for the SA market is completely different. An example of this is the pressing of the toe area in SA made Newbery bats. He mentioned that they do not press the toe area in SA as much as in the UK and that this has made a massive difference in bats showing dents rather than cracking in this area. Of course we play our cricket with Kookaburra balls as opposed to Readers or Dukes which are a bit harder and we do not have as many problems with moisture.

[iand123]

So Newbery is SA (and other territories) are not made by Newbery UK?

[Cys1]

No, the bats are not made by Newbery UK but the softs are imported from Newbery UK.
Not sure about other countries but this is the case in SA.

[RoCo Da Pixie]

So Newbery is SA (and other territories) are not made by Newbery UK?

Same with Newbery in Auz,

[iand123]

So the SA and Aus Newbery's are essentially "franchises" of the UK brand but they can make their own bats? Pretty decent business model in my opinion, is there any other companies who operate like this that people are aware of?

[RoCo Da Pixie]

So the SA and Aus Newbery's are essentially "franchises" of the UK brand but they can make their own bats? Pretty decent business model in my opinion, is there any other companies who operate like this that people are aware of?

I would say that would be correct, I know the Newbery Stickers in Aus are different to the uk based stickers, I have not seen the Newbery SA Stickers

[Tom]

So the SA and Aus Newbery's are essentially "franchises" of the UK brand but they can make their own bats? Pretty decent business model in my opinion, is there any other companies who operate like this that people are aware of?

Not franchises, they license the name.

Kookaburra, GM etc all do it.

[iand123]

Not franchises, they license the name.

Kookaburra, GM etc all do it.

Ah ok, still seems a pretty decent way to make money out of the brand if you don't intend to try and crack that market yourself