i Can't believe that after having such a bad experience you still went ahead with a purchase
I was all set to return empty hand, but then spotted this Retro. It picks up well and the middle is very responsive. Plus didn't want to return empty handed having invested 6 hrs of my weekend.
But I am very disappointed and unimpressed with the fact that they had none of their top of the range bats and only a handful of the Test grade bats in stock. I find it hard to believe that between Jon's visit and mine (3 days) they sold all their stock.
So what would DF do if someone placed an order for an Ultimate grade bat? Call the customer and say sorry but we do not have the right willow??
I would not be wrong in saying that this was the best looking bat of all the senior grade bats in the shop (unless they had more in the store but did not want to show them). The other Test and Pro bats were no better than the Pums 2000/3000 in looks.
Picked-up a lot of bats and struggled to find a 2.9/2.10 with a decent profile. Not the place to visit if you are after a big bat in 2.9/2.10. What surprised me was that the guy said they receive willow with 12%-14% moisture content and they dry them to get it down to 10% or less so that they can get bats with big profile and less weight, but there was not a single bat in the shop to substantiate his comment.
The bats still look like these from the era gone buy where bats were heavy and thin....
Guess they have made themselves marginal operators in the industry and derive most of their sales from the local cricket community. Couldn't believe they do not have a full time batmaker....