Dec 09, 2012

It’s been a while since I made a bat and it’s perhaps even longer since I last wrote about making one but there’s a good reason I promise. So we’ll see how rusty I am and hope something coherent comes out. Cricket on the other side of the globe is getting underway and that means [...]

Nov 21, 2012

Laver have led the way in handle innovations since the mid 2000′s when they launched their impressive CarboCane handles. Now for 2013 Laver have added two new handles to their range – the whippy “WillowCane” and a legal carbon design, the “C-Ten”. So with four handles now available, here’s a bit of the theory behind [...]

Nov 05, 2012

I have been following Cricket Insight ever since I was asked to do an article about my Company J.S.Wright & Sons Ltd. back in the summer of 2012. Cricket insight has always struck me as informative and up to date, I have just read the “A ticket to the green eyed monster” article and finally [...]

Oct 28, 2012

As unlikely as it may seem that Shakespeare was thinking of cricket when he wrote Iago’s immortal words “It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.“, the phrase is certainly apt here. Sometimes you hear something that stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder if you imagined it [...]

Oct 02, 2012

B3 CRICKET For those of you who do not know, I have started my own Cricket company, together with Russ Evans and Michael Blatherwick called B3 Cricket.   B3 Cricket aims to provide the club cricketer the ability to design their ideal cricket bat, a service only previously provided to a handful of international professional cricketers. [...]

Sep 16, 2012

I knew this day would come… I just didn’t think it would come so soon. The one that gave me the confidence to realise I could make a decent cricket bat has now reached that time where I have to decide between, repairing it and waiting for inevitable moment when it disintegrates in my hands [...]

Aug 31, 2012

Earlier this year we covered the interesting concept that is CricTech. Devised by former Yorkshire-based cricketer, Richard Blackledge. CricTech has developed a cricket bat analysis and design process that could revolutionise how cricketers choose their bats. The CricTech process uses patented impact marker sheets which enable the optimum sweet spot position to be measured for [...]

Jul 15, 2012

Interestingly enough, it usually is the last thing I do when shaping a cricket bat. Attempting to keep the spine perfectly straight or dead centre throughout the whole process would test anyone’s resolve. Spending the extra time to straighten a spine that you’ll probably have to remove eventually anyway is the kind of behaviour that [...]

Jun 19, 2012

I thought I would write a little post to show you what a bat manufacturer/ maker can do to reduce the weight of a bat whilst apparently increasing the profile. I say increase profiles (tongue in cheek), but what I really mean is increase the edge.   All the profiles below have approximately the same volume; [...]

Jun 16, 2012

For just a small moment we’ll put aside the mallet from “Progress on the mallet amongst other things.“, as a bat needed making. There was a whisper of anticipation in the air… my new drawknife awaiting its first helping of willow cleft for breakfast, the tools laid out across the bench, a cup of tea [...]

Jun 06, 2012

After sanding all the excess glue, of which there was lots, I gave the bat a healthy dose of raw linseed oil. The bat must have been quite dry as the oil was absorbed in no time at all. The owner had asked if I could get it fixed for Saturday’s game but I doubted [...]

May 25, 2012

The first practice nets session in sunshine was delightful. However mid way through, I could see someone eye balling their bat as though there was some damage to be investigated. This is the same bat from the Flamboyance can have consequences post. You’ll be glad to hear that the repair I did originally has held up nicely… [...]