Frequently Asked Questions

What wood do you make your cricket bats with?

We make our cricket bats exclusively with English Willow. While the handle is made from cane which we get produced in India, the blade of all of our cricket bats is made only from English Willow. It's very common now for brands to use Kashmir willow, Serbian Willow, Dutch willow, and occasionally Australian willow. This partly due to the cost and availability of English Willow, and partly due to new marketing techniques that can be adopted since the rise of social media. What many fail to account for, is that these willows have been tried and tested in years gone by, and have not stood the test of time, thus increasing the global demand for English willow. 

The UK offers the perfect climate and soil types for English cricket bat willow to flourish. English willow requires moist, low laying, loamy soil, most commonly found in the South East of England. This is true to the point that some bat makers avoid willow that is grown in the more mountainous north of England due to the impact the growing conditions will have on the cleft that is produced. The same rationale is provided to other types of willow such as Kashmir. Kashmir is much warmer, drier climate, resulting in a firmer, less springy cricket bat. Though there is no scientific evidence to back this up, there is a reason that a professional cricketer will only trust their reputation with an English willow cricket bat.

As for English willow, the timber itself possesses 'softwood' properties while actually being categorised as a 'hardwood'. This makes a cricket bat tough, yet lightweight, and when pressed correctly, does not shatter easily. 

 

Do you hard press or soft press your cricket bats?

We believe that a bat is either pressed, or unpressed. A cricket ball, especially a new or newer ball will leave seam marks or even large indentations in a bat that is under pressed. The truth is that no 2 clefts are the same, and we aim to maximise the playing potential of every bat that we make. We know the sound and response that the modern cricketer is looking for in their cricket bat, and we have adopted our own methods of pressing that we believe gives every cleft the optimum chance of being that super bat that our customer is looking for. In summary, some clefts could have many passes through the press, to the point somewhere an observer may worry that the bat would become too hard, thus being 'over-pressed'. However, upon testing the bat with a mallet or ball, it still produces that soft sound that cricketers crave. In the same breath, some clefts reach this point with many less runs through the press, and some clefts never reach this point at all. This is the beauty of working with a natural product. To negate this, every bat that can be purchased on our website is listed with a 'ping test' video, showing the customer how the bat performs. As for custom made bats, if they don't make the grade, we don't send them, we start again. 

 

Can I return a cricket bat that I have purchased from you?

Bats ordered from our workshop stock can be returned to us if you are not satisfied with the bat. You must notify us within 7 days, and return the bat to us within 14. Unless there is a fault with the bat, return shipping is always payable by the customer. If you have paid for one of our knocking in services, this amount is always non refundable. Bats that are returned to us must have only had light use, like throw downs for example - i.e. no heavy tapping, no bowling machine use, no splinters on the edge, no grass stains, and must have the same grip, stickers, and scuff sheet that the bat had on it when you received it. Bats that are returned to us in a condition other than this, will not be refunded.

Custom bats are always non returnable, as these are made to order, to your exact specification. You are however, covered should there be any manufacturing faults, which should always be reported to us immediately. 

 

Do I need to knock in my new OX29 cricket bat?

We stand by our pressing, and believe that a correctly pressed & prepared bat requires minimal, if any knocking in. All of our bats have the leading edges hardened & rounded by a horse's shin bone soaked in raw linseed oil, before leaving the workshop. This significantly helps reduces surface edge cracks early in the bat's life. 

Machine Knocking - Our knocking in machine provides 13,000 strikes to the entire strike surface of the bat, beneath the stickers. An OX29 bat that comes off of this machine is absolutely ready for use, however often can have a slightly harder sound, and feel, due to the extra compression the bat has received. This is ideal if you want a bat that will last a longer amount of time, and you aren't looking for the 'soft ping' that lots of crickets are searching for these days. Bats that come off this machine will have a harder surface, and also require more 'playing in', before the ball really starts to fly off the bat. That being said, it will be more protected against damage, particularly to new balls, in the early stages of it's life. This is something we recommend for the typical club cricketer, as it should prolong the life of your bat. We receive a lot of Indian produced bats for our machine knocking service, as they tend to be pressed quite lightly and usually require more extensive knocking in.

Hand Knocking - The hand knocking service that we provide, is what we recommend if you want to get the peak performance from your OX29 bat, sooner. Hand striking the edges & toe with a mallet replicating ball striking, ensures that the bat is ready for the impact of facing a hard cricket ball, taking away any sharper, softer edges that may otherwise damage upon impact. No matter how firmly a bat has been pressed, the toe & edges are the softest parts of the bat, as naturally with any method of pressing, these areas receive the least compression. Therefore, it is essential that they are knocked in, or boned at a very minimum. The hand knocking also does not interfere with the pressing, whereby a bat coming off the machine can feel and sound harder than it did when it went on, as explained above. A hand knocked bat maintains the press that has been purposely and skilfully put into the bat by the bat maker, while thoroughly preparing the toe & edges, more than just boning them would. This is a service we can carry out, or can easily be carried out at home.