English Willow Cricket Bat

Details

A short handle bat in English willow, Salix alba var. caerulea, with the grade you are actually paying for stated as a grade, a grain count and a density figure. English willow is sold in grades one to five and the grade is nearly the whole price. Grade 1 is a near clear face with eight to twelve straight grains. Grade 2 has six to nine with a minor blemish. Grade 3 has five to eight and carries butterfly stain and specks, which are cosmetic and change nothing about how the bat plays. The retail cheat is a Grade 1 sticker applied to Grade 3 wood, and it works because a grade is a visual judgement and nobody argues with a sticker. The harder cheat is species. Kashmir willow is a different tree, denser, harder and deader off the face, and it is routinely sold as English willow at English willow prices. A grain count cannot settle it because both have grains. Density can: English willow runs about 0.36 to 0.44 grams per cubic centimetre and Kashmir runs 0.48 to 0.60. Every bat here is weighed and its blade volume measured, and the density is written on the label with the grade. A bat over 0.46 is not English willow and will not leave this shelf. And it is pressed but not finished. It arrives lightly pressed and needs six hours of knocking in with a mallet, spread over two weeks, before it faces a hard ball. That step is skipped more often than it is done, and the bat that cracks in week two is nearly always a bat that was never knocked in. The mallet is in the box.

• English willow, Salix alba var. caerulea, air dried twelve months to 8 to 12 percent moisture
• Grade, grain count and measured density all printed on the bat itself
• Density 0.36 to 0.44 g per cubic centimetre. Anything above 0.46 is not English willow
• Pressed, then requires six hours of knocking in over two weeks before a hard ball
• Twelve-piece Sarawak cane handle with three rubber insertion strips
• Spliced into the blade, not glued into a socket, so a repairer can cut it out and refit
• Semi-oval profile, mid-to-low sweet spot, 38 mm edges and a 62 mm spine, inside the Law 5 limits
• Every bat weighed individually and marked, 1,180 to 1,220 g
• Toe guard fitted, anti-scuff sheet, spare grip and knocking-in mallet all in the box
• No fibreglass wrap covering a low grade, no socket-glued handle, no Kashmir willow
• Grade 3 carries butterfly stain and specks on the face. They are marks in the timber and they do not affect a stroke. What you pay more for at Grade 1 is a cleaner face and slightly faster wood, not a different game.