Master batmaker, John Gasson, reaches 50
Master batmaker John Gasson has completed a remarkable 50 years’ service with world renowned cricket specialist Gray-Nicolls. Clients have included some of the greatest names in the game and only recently current England captains Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook collected their handcrafted bats from the Robertsbridge factory. John applied for a job at the tender...
Which bat?
First of all sorry for not posting in a while, I have been a bit busy with GM 2013, which got me thinking about how you the cricketer select a bat? When designing a new bat its important to think who (what type of player will this bat suit) and what does that player want,...
A special bond
After a few days of pondering on the trouble I’d had with the finishing of the last bat, I realised that the difficulty I’d experienced was the exception and not the norm. However there’s always room for improvement, but more on that another time. I wasn’t sure what to say about this bat, it...
The Fun and Frustration of Finishing
When you get the finish just right, there’s fewer parts of the process that can be as satisfying. Seeing the grain of the wood come to life, along with the blemishes is rewarding. Usually, people want to cleanest looking, straightest grained piece of willow they can find, but the blemishes add character in my opinion....
Fourth Time Lucky?
I will be starting my fourth attempt at finishing this cricket bat. Yes that’s right, FOURTH! Every time I’ve got close to completing the finishing I’ve had some tear out and been forced to go all the way back to the beginning. This time I got to the binding and then noticed it. At first...
A traditional touch
With the last project all wrapped up and on display. It was nice to get some positive feedback about it. Whilst it didn’t make its way to the intended customer, I’m more than happy to keep it. I’ve had some enquiries about making other planes for people and will be undertaking this work in due...
It’s all about the edge
Judging a bat by its….. edge. Big edges, everybody’s talking about them, on the forum, in the shops, in the dressing room. I like to go undercover into cricket shops and listen to people when they are choosing a bat, I often hear ”look at the size of this edge, its bigger than that one“ and on...
Salix Cricket Bat Making Process
The story, of Salix, began when Andrew Kember was in his mid teens, he aquired wood, cane, rubber and made his first cricket bat. Robertsbridge based Podshaver, John Newbery was so impressed with what he saw that he took Kember on as his apprentice in 1984. Kember went on to gain further experience at Gray...
Who doesn’t love a round bottom… plane that is.
Finally done! I expected this one would take a little bit more time to make than the previous round bottom plane I’d made. Mainly because the previous one was for me and I really wasn’t bothered how it looked so long as it functioned correctly. This time around I was more concerned with the cosmetics...
GM Players Edition
There’s been a bit of activity on the forum discussing the Player’s Edition bats that GM have released this year, so I thought I would discuss the concept and how it was born. I guess the first place to start is the bats provided to the Pro cricketer. The majority, and by majority I mean...
DXM – bat making, evolved…..
Firstly I would like to thank Tom and the Cricket Insight team for inviting me to contribute to the Cricket Insight website through a series of blogs, that will mainly focus on bats, both past and present and specifically the design and engineering principles behind them. At this point, you are probably asking who is...
The Art of Pod Shaving
A recent thread on cricket insight forum (CIF) had got me thinking more about what a Pod Shaver is and the position in which it now finds itself. I had an interesting conversation with Marcus @ SAF a couple of days ago regarding all sorts of things that mainly revolved around branding, communication and identity. Since then I’ve found myself...
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