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[GJ]

Did a quick search on the forum and couldnt find anything on the background of the famous podshavers... Obviously the main ones are obvious such as John Newbery passing on his skills to Tim Keeley, Julian Millichamp and Andrew Kember. What would be ideal is a big batmaking tree to clearly see who's who.
But I'm keen to find out the other less known ones such as Gray Nicolls, Bradbury, Laver, Warsop etc...
Maybe other smaller brands on here could tell us their background and how they learnt the trade...

Also for anyone in the know, what were the reasons/stories behind James Laver and Julian moving to New Zealand and Australia and re-starting their trades over their?

[SAF Bats]

L J Nicholls [Nicholls Bats]
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Len Newbery [Nicholls Bats - then Gray-Nicholls]
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John Newbery [Newbery]
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Julian Millichamp [Millichamp and Hall] - Andrew Kember [Salix Bats] - Tim Keeley [Newbery bats]
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James Laver [Laver and Wood] - Paul Bradbury [Bradbury] - Sam Miller [formerly Chase now Puma??] Millichamp Apprentices
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Marty Graham [MG2] James Laver Apprentice

Max Warsop [Warsop and Stebbing]
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Chris Hext Farrant [Premier Bat Company New Zealand] Still makes them today


Stuart Surridge and George Busey [Stuart Surridge]
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Norman Hunt [Stuart Surridge, see below]


Benjamin Warsop & Sons [B. Warsop & sons]
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George Hunt [Formerly of Stuart Surridge]
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Norman Hunt [Hunts County]

[procricket]

Sam Miller is head of Masuri UK now

[Beachcricket]

Did Matt (H4L), Gary (Redback), Andy (SAF)... etc, all learn by themselves? If they did then that is seriously impressive!

[Howzat]

Gary said once he used to make guitars and then started on bats or something

[Mortimer]

The Hunts in Hunts county bats is the short from of Huntingdonshire

From the HCB website:

County Bats were first made at St. Neots in Huntingdonshire by the Trimmins family in 1904. Production continued here until the factory moved to Huntingdon in 1983. The craftsmen from St. Neots are still making bats at Huntingdon which enables us to use the slogan 'bats made for centuries'

The current company, HCB was formed after the original County Bats uk operation went bust in 1982.

Masuri UK has a connection to Chase through Robin Smith

[procricket]

Masuri uk has connections through JonHardy ex Chase owner and Robin Smith had a few of the early helmets made out in SA

Now Smith runs Masuri Aus

[100 not out]

corect me if im wrong but i think Gary had a stint at M&H in Taunton.

Thats what i heard in any case.

[Howzat]

corect me if im wrong but i think Gary had a stint at M&H in Taunton.

Thats what i heard in any case.

Maybe, I noticed that the Amplus Peplow posted up had the angled toe (to reduce damage from tapping at the crease) that all redbacks have...

[MineheadCricket]

That's unreal if he has learnt alone! I always presumed he learnt alone as I've never heard differently though...

[peplow]

All millichamps ahve that, i think its a nice touch!