Benfleet CC v Basildon & Pitsea cc 4th X 26th Aug 2017

Penultimate League game this Saturday away at Benfleet against their 3rd XI. Our team sheet looked ropey all week with very few people ticking to indicate that they were available. Joe's game in the 3's was a home game, so after picking up Tim Brown I dropped him off and Tim and I headed for Benfleet for the 12.30 start.

Weather was fine - blue skies and cumulus clouds and predicted 25 degrees centigrade. Got changed and as we got ready it became apparent that we were a couple of blokes down, but the oppo were saying they were in a similar situation. I made a couple of phone calls to see if I could get a couple of people at short notice, but this was to no avail.

As a result of the toss, we were fielding first. We opened with Jai who was playing tomorrow and was only going to bowl 5 overs. He bowled well as did Tony Keep bowling from the North End (A127 end). Once Jai had finished his spell Joey Keep (Tony's son) bowled, not having bowled for 4 years and it didn't go that well and he asked to finish his spell at the end of the 1st over, but the rest of the team encouraged him to continue. As you can see he did better in the following two overs.
 I then came on bowling from the A13 end see below...

I got the wicket of E.Warwick (Captain), who after having a look at a couple of attempts at my stock Leg-breaks which I wasn't spinning that much... just wasn't coming out of the hand that well, he decided - as they often do, that enough was enough and my bowling was going to be hit back to Tarpots on the A13... A massive swing and a miss at a ball that pitched on off and turned away from the off-stump signalled his intention, so the next ball was one with a lot more over-spin. This one dipped and didn't really turn - cramped him up and he dollied it back to me for a bowled and caught. He looked a little disappointed. I only just caught it - as it was one of those that came straight at me and initially I couldn't tell if it was coming at me fast so I set myself as if it was fast and then realised it was dead slow and it had began to dip so I had to suddenly squat and in doing so twisted my knee.

But, it was the other bloke Joe Owen whose wicket I wanted as he looked more organised and threatening, he'd already hit the ball back past me for 4 with a singular off-drive that evaded both me and the fielder at mid-off. But the majority of his shots came off of pull-shots between fine-leg and mid-wicket region, where with only 9 players, one of whom had already gone down with a bad back from bowling (Joey Keep) wasn't looking too up for it or agile. The other bloke Dave Ayres our chairman - who doesn't play and on very rare occasion come in to help out - but this was the first time in two years - was given the role of sweeper covering the area this bloke saw as his main scoring area. Dave is no athlete, more suited to darts I would imagine - but he pit in a valiant effort, but I leaked runs down there. Not Dave's fault at all, my fault for bowling leg-side where this bloke obviously felt his strength was.

The knee then started to have some impact, along with the fact that I couldn't get the ball out of the hand with any revs on, so I got a bit carted.

I was followed by Al McIver and Frank McLeod who did a good job getting the remaining wickets. Owen was eventually dismissed for 34 caught off of Al's bowling, edging the ball to Tony Keep at a position around Gully/4th slip area. He was their best bat in this game so was a valuable wicket to take. They finished with 128 for 8 all out - off of 38 overs.

Tea was very commendable and we all made our way back satisfied and ready to bat. The openers were Joey Keep who scored a fair few runs in the last game and the reliable Frank McCleod who usually provides the main runs in our innings and any hope of a win. Frank faced the first ball and the opener was Warwick (Capt) with the kid Joe Owen bowling from the A127 end. Not only was Joe Owen their star batsman, but his bowling was very tidy as well...

Owen accounted for Joey Keep for 2, and Tim Brown and Tony Keep for 10 each. Frank McLeod scored 58 with 11 fours primarily scored off of Warwicks bowling.

With Frank batting I'd gone looking for lost cricket balls which looked as though they'd be easily found having been given up on far too easily. Couldn't find any and when I emerged from the trees and got back to Dave who was scoring, found myself 2 wickets away from getting a bat which is very unusual. While I was getting my pads on, one wicket went down and shortly after getting padded up with Owen getting through our batting line-up like a hot knife through butter Tony Keep was caught off of Owen's bowling for his 3rd wicket.

As Tony came off I asked what was happening and he said "Just straight and accurate". I joined Jai and faced the first ball off the other bloke bowling from the A13 end... L.Wheeler. As Tony said - straight and accurate, varying the speed. I was initially very nervous, just not wanting to get out, there were loads of overs on the board and we only needed about 30 runs. I remembered the disastrous game where I joined Lee and played across the line and got bowled when we only needed a similar amount of runs. Within the first few balls off of Wheeler I missed one, that must have just missed the off-stump and noticed where my bat had gone in relation to the ball... I'd played across the line, bringing the bat down diagonally from my back-lift -past the point of impact - mistiming it with the bat swinging through towards mid-on and not the bowler! I stood and re-calibrated my brain - realising that this bloke at least and probably the other one at the other end were bowling straight and accurately and if I didn't rectify this I'd be out.

Joe my younger son has worked with me on this and the solution is to have the bat in my back-lift behind me almost pointing towards fine-leg. I then seem to bring the back down and through the ball - with the bat pointing towards the batsman, so I put that approach into action and it worked. The kid Joe Owen was as described.. accurate with some variations. Most of it was straight, but looked as though it was supposed to be off-breaks, some turned a little and then every now and then he'd try and bowl what looked like leg-break out of the hand. Frank was umpiring and was saying - just get bat on ball and take your time, the runs will come. At the other end Jai was playing with more fluency and was obviously less risk adverse than me so was making runs, so that for me was the basis of a plan. I'll just block, and help see off the threatening Owen The key thing was not to lose a wicket with so many overs to play with. I've previously batted with a bloke in a partnership of 90 +  runs and won a game that had been given up on. In that game I scored no runs, he scored all 90, I just blocked , so I can stick in there and soak up the goading and jibes while the other bloke scores. I figured if Jai lost his wicket G-man and Dave Ayres might then play his role?

It worked okay, at drinks it worked out that we needed a run an over. Owen had run out of overs and another bloke came on and he was nowhere near as threatening. But the bloke at the A13 end (Wheeler) was still a bit tricky, trying all sorts... slow, loopy, faster, all very accurate, but then every couple of overs or so, he pushed one through outside of off, not sure if it was intentional. There were about 3 and each one I played at I missed, with what seemed to me a high chance of the ball being edged through to the keeper, but he didn't see the potential, so went back to bowling at the stumps... A kind of you miss - I win approach. Over by over, the total came down, the batting and the approach taken flattering the bowlers figures, but in between the maidens Jai was hitting singles and 2's and a couple of fours. With only 4 required and the field up around our gills I saw the opportunity to hit the winning runs off of Wheeler, first a couple hit through backward of square leg and then one in the gap between square leg and mid-wicket for 4. I rarely get to bat, so it was nice to get a bat and bring the team home for a win and be the one that scores the winning runs!

Once home writing this up, I looked up Joe Owens stats on Play cricket and found out a little about him...

This year he's bowled 134 overs. That includes 21 Maidens, He's taken 43 wickets!!! with his best being 5 for 20. He's only been playing adult cricket for 2 years and he's had 2 x 5 wicket hauls and his economy is 3.39 and his strike rate is 18.79. His average is 10.63 and his contribution to the team as a bowler is 26.71% of the wickets. So he's no slouch with the ball. But he doesn't look that massively threatening, but he's definitely accurate and if you miss he is going to hit the stumps, he varies what he does, so I'm guessing if you go after him, it's definitely going involve quite a high level of risk as Tony, Joey and Tim Brown discovered.

His batting was okay and on this day he was by far their best playing with the ball and the bat. So I have come up with a cunning plan as I'm bound to play against him again next season, or if don't Joe will. See the plan in the bowling plans blog listed below here.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

More pre-season nets

As the start of the season approaches... 2 potential friendlies on 23rd and 30th April, we're looking to have a few nets sessions with the bowling machine and today saw the first of three we've got planned. If you're a regular on the blog or the big cricket forum you'll know that I can't bat and that my highest score ever is 16 against Orsett two years ago. There's been no improvement, as that year we were promoted up to a far better league and our team struggled. I had a couple of promising starts with scores of 11 and 14 that came far more fluently than my 16, but I was always let down by the bloke at the other end as I bat at either 10 or 11.

With those two double figure scores being thwarted in the usual no.10/11 way I sensed that the more positive approach to my batting that I'd adopted seemed to be paying off. It seemed to have come about by virtue of more practice with a more positive mind-set. The practice aspect was interesting as coming to the game so late in life, the chances to practice for instance with a bowling machine was non-existent and I figured that if I was able to have someone or something to put the ball in a specific area consistently I might have the chance to improve? I can't remember how it happened, but looking around I found a venue with a bowling machine that in late October was (1) empty and (2) relatively cheap and decided that I'd give it a go. In the worst case scenario, I might come away from a handful of sessions being less fearful of the ball I figured?

Better, still what I wanted was to move up the order a little... (8)? so that I had the chance to make a contribution with the bat. So back in October and through November and December Joe and I started to go to Writtle Cricket centre for an hour or two every fortnight with specific aims. On the first visit it soon became very apparent that this was the potential answer to the problem, the more balls you face the more likely you're going to be able to figure things out and make a fist of staying in and scoring a few runs. So over that period we've been working on playing with a straight bat and I've definitely made some advances which numerous people at the club have commented on having either seen the videos or my batting at pre-season nets at the club.

Recently I videoed my batting over at Mopsies and posted it on Youtube (Double click the image).

Off the back of that, one of the coaches on Bigcricket commented on it privately, pointing out the fact that I'm jumping away from the ball when it's on my leg and offered me some drills and guidance. Yesterday I spent 3 x 20 minute sessions working specifically on this aspect of my batting and the results are here (Double click the image for the video).

Although there seems to be a significant improvement whilst I know the balls coming into the legs, I found it a lot harder to maintain the discipline when the bowling was mixed up - different lengths, offside. legside and on the stumps, so there's still some work to do.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Pre-season practice and fitness at Mopsies and the Rec

Weather was fine today, a little cold at 10 degrees but dry and bright following a week of cold but generally dry weather. Not wanting to have a weekend with no cricket at all, Joe and I opted to go and have a look at Mopsies as an option for a practice, realising it probably was going to be dry enough. Normally we might have gone over to Gloucester Park, but since the 'Sporting Village' has taken it over they don't let anyone participate in sport unless you're ready to pay a premium for it and they want £70 for something that was free to all of the community a few years ago and had been for decades. Again, something I find incredulous, given that the levels obesity and the fall in sports participation in this country and the fact that the government pays lip service to the idea that it supports sports participation.

Anyway enough of a moan, at least we can drive right across town spewing hydro-carbons into the air and use Mopsies. It's a lot of aggro, but once there and setting all the stuff up it always goes quite well and ends up being worth it.

 Joe getting all the gear out of the car.

 All set up and ready to go. With no wicket keeper we put up a piece of scaffold net to prevent the majority of the balls from ending up on the boundary.

As we were packing up the sun came out, still looks nothing like spring - the trees still bare with no leaves.

We took 50 balls, Joe bowled two lots of 50 and I had one bag of 50 as Joe didn't want to bat the second time (Wanted to get home and watch Youtube or play Black Ops). He bowled really well for the most part, Joe targeted my leg-stump as he knows that's my weak zone. Looking at the video below, this is very different to facing a bowling machine and there's a few obvious things I reckon I need to do. In comparison to batting against the machine, there's very little in the way of forward movement? I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

I reckon more work in the nets over the Easter Break trying to get forwards, maybe speed the bowling machine up, we've been working with it at 68mph at the most, maybe we should look to use it at 70mph? Maybe if I'm able to get used to that and still hit the ball, it'll be easier when it's a real bowler? It does seem to be very much a confidence thing, I've been batting so much better in the nets, hitting full tosses and generally just hitting the ball cleaner and this must be a consequence of the work done in the nets over the winter?

Double click the image below for the video.

My bowling...

What happened - The camera was set up behind the batsman and to the side at the other end to record the approach to the crease, action and follow through. I managed to get some footage of both before the battery died in the cold. I bowled 50 balls coming off of a 14’ run-up. I then got home and played the footage back through software that enabled me to view the action in slow motion. In relation to the last action plan (see here) I’ve implemented very little because of the weather and a reluctance to spend money on hiring indoor venues to practice the action. Bowled in the nets on Tuesday night, too a good wicket.

Feelings – The actual bowling seemed to go quite well and I would have had Joe bowled around his legs, caught behind wicket keeper and stumped a number of times. So that seemed okay, but felt wrong. The video once played back and looked at… That made me a little depressed as there seems to have been a big backwards step. But whilst feeling down about the current action I do feel as though it is recoverable if I’m given the chance to correct it. I reckon a couple of tweaks and I’ll be back on track.

What was good/bad – Length was too full on Sunday, took some getting used to in order to pull it back, would have been hit for plenty and in a 40 over game might have been taken off after two overs? Once settled too plenty of wicket especially stumping off of Joe trying to charge me and hit the ball before it bounced. Joe was very successful at this in the nets on Tuesday night – batted really well, but would have fallen eventually. Bad – the action; the bound looks bad, BFC was angled so bowling action was very front on with little pivot. The stride was short and the front leg collapsed at FFC.

Analysis – As alluded to above, I think the whole thing can be recovered given some proper time to practice without the use of a ball, just focusing on the bowling action. Looking at the video footage there are some glaring deficiencies. As I go into the bound there seems to be a lack of setting up in order to facilitate the getting side on aspect. Which means as I land out of the bound BFC is angled and my body is too front on and lacks the side on attributes that I should be aiming for. The stride is then pretty weak e.g. short. The rest of the action looks fairly okay other than occasionally there’s a fade to the left through the follow-through like Mushatq Ahmed. The whole thing looks as though it lacks oomph and dynamism, but I reckon it wouldn’t take a lot of work to correct it. As mentioned previously, fitness is currently an issue, the weather hasn’t been that conducive with getting out and about. In addition the last two weeks I’ve felt as though I’m on the verge of coming down with a cold or something, if you believe in biorhythms I’d say that it may be something to do with that?

All that aside, it is Easter and I’ve got two weeks off now to work on all of these aspects and if the last 2 weeks was the down-side of the biorhythmic pattern, the coming days should see an improvement of all things physical? One note of caution I’ve got to do some digging and labouring in the next few days, so that’s going to kill me unless I’m fitter than think, but at 56 I reckon I’ll be a bit sore after a few days of lugging around paving stones and pebbles.

Conclusion – Fitness needs to be improved, more likely if the weather gets better and enable me to get out in it. Bowling action needs to be worked on – particularly and foremost - getting side-on coming out of the bound.

Action plan – Try and practice with Joe as much as possible over the coming two weeks especially at Mopsies. Set aside specific time to work on the bowling action without the use of the ball. Film the bowling action without the ball. Start to do cardio work and leg work to build up strength and stamina with lower body specificity. Get back on the upper body work too. Reflect on progress mid-week (30^th March)?

Today 28th March after a crappy Easter weekend, the wind and rain stopped for long enough to get out and have a knock about in the street and then do some work on fitness. Joe and I took a 20 minute run/walk over to The Rec which took in the Rec hill which I negotiated with far more ease than I'd expected...

It's not all running especially at this point in the season, power-walking mixed with sprinting and running... getting the heart going and getting some strength back in my legs is the priority for me.

Short rest at the square at Langdon Hills Rec. 

Then up the hill and back home.

Our house to the Rec, up the hill and back... 20 minutes, as I get fitter I may have to go right around the field to make it a 20 minute exercise.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

.

Pre nets practice

I've not bowled for months now having given myself a rest and focused for once on my batting. The nets that we go to once a fortnight are rammed solid at the weekend and booked up, so this weekend we're not going. Last weekend we practiced at a local 'Cage' and it proved to be a decent place to practice, so we went again today and did some work with batting and bowling for once.

Batting went okay, although Joe was a bit of a pain as he came along with attitude and didn't seem to do anything with any effort or conviction. He's 14, nearly 15, so has a bit of an attitude issue when you drag him away from Youtube! Similar to last week I was practicing moving my feet - getting to the pitch of the ball, driving the ball and paddle sweeps. All of which I'm doing with far more assuredness and success.

The bowling was reasonable, but I've already identified what I need to focus on and it's exactly what Tony M was recommending when I last bowled at Writtle... focusing on getting up on the toes in the delivery. There's a weeks holiday coming up soon for me (Lecturer) which means I can focus on this and practice with a lot more conviction and maybe get the video recording going and record my progress. What is good though is the fact that the 'New run-up' seems to be feeling pretty natural and the ball is coming out okay despite not bowling properly since late October early November.

Cricket Bat Willow - Kashmir v English and cricket bat qualities and attributes.

Kashmir Willow (This is still being worked on).

In cricket the term Kashmir willow is said with contempt and utter derision, but is it really that bad and why has it got such a bad reputation?

 As someone who bowls and bats at number 9,10 or 11 I've never understood why anyone who can't bat and there are many of us at club level (Some of whom don't bowl) would ever pay for a good quality bat?

Is the bad rep down to the characteristics and properties of the wood or is there something about the way that it is sold and marketed?

So, I've spent a little bit of time trying to dig up some good news for Kashmir bats but have come across very little that I can use. If you look around the internet there's anecdotal information that people like Raul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar have used Kashmir bats 'Early in their careers'. But I couldn't find any concrete evidence of that being the case, it might be true in that when they were kids they used Kashmir? There's another argument that - in the same way that English willow varies massively from the bats the pro's use down to grade 5 . Kashmir obviously has similar characteristics in accordance to where it's grown, the local climate, weather, soil types etc. It may be the case that within India there are bespoke bat makers that are able to source better quality Kashmir willow and for all we know this may be passed on to the pro's when they have to be seen to promote the local bats? This is of course speculation, but it does seem somewhat ridiculous to say that all Kashmir willow is of one grade... "bad".

You can easily find articles about how the bats are made in India and the owners of companies owning up to the fact that they'll sell any old rubbish to the locals. There's also the numerous articles and forum pages that discuss the fact that if the bat has got Tendulkar's name on it and a fake MRF sticker it'll fly out of the door in it's thousands irrespective of the quality of the wood. Again this makes total sense when in the subcontinent they do play a lot of cricket socially using rubber balls and tape balls. Where I live in the UK there are loads of blokes who work in the IT industry who are 1st generation immigrants from the subcontinent region and they play their cricket in this exact way, so Kashmir for them is no doubt ideal. But to say all of it is one grade has got to be complete nonsense surely?

Companies such as Kookaburra, Slazenger, Puma and Adidas all have amongst their ranges Kashmir bats... Surely these big name brands have some say in the quality of the willow that they stick their brand names on?

While I was doing the research for the above I came across some interesting information on the Kookaburra website. It's frequently said that the Indian companies that trade through Ebay are some of the most unscrupulous around, making wild claims about the bats that they sell, but whilst looking around the Kookaburra website looking for their Kashmir bats I found this advert which I thought was interesting...

As far as I'm concerned this advert is incredibly misleading. You can see the bat, the advert owns up to the fact that it's Kashmir willow, but other parts of the advert give the impression that Jos uses this bat "As used by" and "Used by pro's" and finally beneath the image the text pointing out that is "Armed with the Verve". The bat above retails for about £30 in the UK. The same price as the bats that I'm testing out at the moment here .The uninitiated, unfortunately are not aware that in fact the bat that Jos is more than likely using is a souped up version of this bat here below... Although some pro's do use the top range bats straight off the shelf alongside the bespoke versions.

Which as you can see retails for £439.95 a rather big difference.

I don't think this type of marketing does Kashmir willow any favours at all, the wording should indicate it's the style of bat Jos uses, not imply it is the bat he uses. To be honest he probably doesn't even use the £550 version, instead he has his bats made for him by Kookaburra's master bat-makers using one of the very unique pieces of grade 1 willow set aside for pro's and people that can afford to have a bat made to order at the factory. See this article here.

I'm digressing a little here, the point I was looking to make was that companies such as Adidas, Puma, Gunn and Moore, Kookaburra etc. are not in the business of selling shoddy goods. They have a name and reputation to keep, so if you buy one of their Kashmir bats, I think with a little research you're going to quickly grasp that it isn't the same product as a grade 1 English willow bat and that is obviously reflected in the price... As little as £14.00 for the bat I use as opposed to the example above at £439.95. But it is a bat and it will function as a bat. If you're a lower end batsman, tail-ender like us, even if you take it from the shop and walk out onto a cricket pitch and start using it, it is probably going to last you a season without any preparation or knocking in. Alternatively when you hit the first ball it may break. But that applies to the £500 bats as well... read this here - especially the bit headed 'Damages'... http://www.cricketdirect.co.uk/all-about-cricket-bats.aspx 

That last link from cricket direct has a relatively fair take on Kashmir bats and they sell a good range of them at good prices. The advice is pretty standard in that they recommend them as low end adult bats, what that actually means and infers I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure if you do play cricket you'll be more than aware that cricket is pretty batting-centric, everything is pretty much about the batsmen, they're seen to be the super-heroes, so if you're a bowler you're a bit part player. Batsmen are never forced to bowl and therefore humiliate themselves, whereas bowlers all have to bowl at some point irrespective of whether we're any good at it or not. We don't like it and the irony is that fellow bowlers are complicit in our pain and humiliation. It seems to me in that act of enforced vulnerability we look for solutions and one of  the solutions we seem to turn to and grasp at, is the belief that maybe the bat and the quality of the bat may have some bearing on the outcome? I don't think it does and I think you humiliate yourself further by buying a top quality bat and making yourself look like a fool.

Is it not better to be completely indifferent to the bat and own up and say 'Mate, I barely get the chance to hit the bloody ball - so why would I pay £400 for a bat'?

But, all that aside, there is still virtually nothing on the internet that indicates any real in-depth analysis of the virtues (if there are any) of Kashmir willow bats. During the research that I've completed in compiling this article I came across only a handful of positive reviews

Double click on the image below for a video review where the bloke talks about the use of Kashmir bats in a relatively positive way...

I think I'll let 'Kev' a massive contributor to the forum Planetcricket.org have the final say on Kashmir bats...

"As a general observation, you can't compare the bat Tendulkar uses to the same bat in your local cricket store. They aren't the same. Is a very good Kashmir willow bat as good as a decent English willow bat? I don't know, logic tells me that there must be some very good pieces of Kashmir willow around where the fibre structure is pretty similar to English willow but I doubt very much these pieces of willow ever make it to a shop. But as this is the Your Cricket section, I suppose your choice of bat should come down to 2 things. 1: How much money do you have to spend and 2: Do you hit the ball sweetly. Because if you can't get bat on ball does it really matter what your bat is made of."

Other people have said that better quality Kashmir bats are as good as grade2 and grade 3 English willow and a fraction of the cost?

Trees and geography. The best bats made throughout the world seemingly are made of English Willow sourced from South East England primarily from my own county Essex and the adjacent county Suffolk. The wood is grown in a haphazard way in that there doesn't seem to be such a thing as enormous Willow woods set aside for just that purpose. If you search 'Willow wood plantation' you'll find images of small plantations, instead land-owners are encouraged to grow the tree as a long term investment seemingly in relatively small copses. The tree is often associated with damp areas and rivers, and throughout Essex you'll see rivers lined with Willow trees.


The English version
The best bats in the world irrespective of where they are made use the same wood, almost exclusively from the same source - JS Wright in south east England, just up the road from where I live. The tree that is grown is  found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere... "salix alba caerulea"or White Willow that has the characteristics and properties that suit high quality bat making...

The climate, geography and growing conditions in this part of the world combined with nearly 2 centuries of forestry and agricultural skills mean that the properties of this wood are unique. So unique that virtually every high quality bat has it's origins in this small area.

Bat Willow (salix alba caerulea).

And this is down to the climate and geographic features. I have noted whilst researching this article that there companies based in the north of the UK that have started to grow willow for the same purpose see here but having said, that this opening article alludes to the fact that they confirm that they get most of their willow from the region I've indicated.

Is Kashmir willow any good at all and why has it got such a bad reputation?








Positive - Kashmir http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Buying-Cricket-Bats-HELP-The-myth-and-scam-of-EWNI-/10000000010832242/g.html

http://shop.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/pavilion/buyingguide_Englishwillow_versus_kashmirwillow.asp

This image here is from a video on Youtube at 3 mins into the video the bat-maker is seen shaping a bat and if you're observant you'll notice that the piece of cardboard that he's squatting on is from the willow supplier JS Wright indicating that this bloke produces top quality bats using English willow in India. Which adds more confusion to any claims that bats made by small operations in India make false claims about the proprietary of their products.(Double click the image for the video).

It seems that without doubt if you can bat and you're an opening batsman or a middle order batsman that can hit the ball with ease and finesse, there's little reason to choose Kashmir if you can afford the real deal. There's an annoying Youtube bloke here that makes a good case for using one or the other and if you can get past the dumb self promotion inserts it's worth listening to.

So what are the differences - why is there such a massive difference in price and quality?

If you do pay nearly £300 for a bat it strikes me that you're going to be able to use it properly and you're going to look after it. Buying an expensive bat doesn't mean that the bat is going to last years and years, especially if you're not that good at batting. All of the top quality bat manufacturers advise that their bats should be knocked in, but they all have a legal caveat that says that if they break the first time they're used that's your fault not the bats or the manufacturers. There is a really interesting article on cricinfo that discusses the trends in bat making pointing out that the leaders in this industry respond to the styles and approaches used by international batsmen. Currently the trend is towards big thick edged bats but with no additional weight factor. As a consequence the bats that are made for pro's are very different to those bought from the shop.

Double click image for Neil Halls documentary images of cricket bat manufacturing.

The manufacturers who sponsor batsmen are constantly looking for individual clefts that fulfil this near impossible combination of weight, shape and strength and the expectations of the wood are now being pushed to the limits of attainment, with an acknowledgement that the bats wont last. In response the manufacturers then have to produce a similar bat for the club players and the next grade down is chosen, but the longevity, durability and strength of such a bat pushed to it's physical limits is such that they are susceptible to breaking. What you end up paying for is a superbly made bat, that works well and plays well up to a limit. But it's not the bat that you see the worlds best players using.

As one of the respondent's to the linked article above says...

"Truth of the matter is, general public simply does NOT have access to the grade of willow reserved for international batsmen. That willow is already filtered out at J.S. Wright farms and kept away from being shipped to general bat makers. Asian bats that are big, light and available to general public are basically over dried clefts of willow that is pressed very, very lightly or not pressed at all. This gives a bloated look to the bat but fact of the matter is, such willow is no comparison to naturally super low density clefts that are used by international pros".

Kashmir Willow on the other hand is a completely different prospect primarily because the wood is denser and heavier and therefore can't ever compete on the same level as the English Willow grown in South East England (JS Wright).

I'm currently in position where I feel that Kashmir willow definitely has its merits for any mortals who don't fancy themselves as over-looked Steve Smiths or Joe Roots. Let the deluded fork out hundreds of pounds/dollars for an inferior version of the bat that they see the pro's using in belief that there is some kind of comparison. Whereas possibly (and I am saying possibly because I might be totally wrong) the better option given their skills might be the much maligned Kashmir bat - denser and heavier and potentially better for hitting the ball for fours and sixes?  So why not consider Kashmir or at least give it a go?

Looking at it and wondering why it had lasted so long I wondered if the bat face tape had anything to do with its longevity? I'd also always been puzzled by the fact that being covered in bat-face tape - how did it last this long without being oiled? So some research was done (See below) into knocking bats in and I discovered a few things as we went about the process of getting the bat ready to use.

Joe's Slazenger V1200 Premier

• Despite the fact that the bat has been pre-knocked in, virtually everyone says that it still needs to be done for a few more hours.
• Oil the bat 3 times over 3 or 4 days. Oil it and then leave it for 24 hours. Only a small bit of oil is required
• The edges of the bat are important and so too is the toe and these will need special attention see below.
• A lot of people smooth off the edges of the bat rubbing another round piece of wood (The handle of a mallet or bat grip cone) run that along the edge and round it off. Then, initially very gently, start to knock the edges in gradually over the first hour.
• The willow is very soft and you'll see it easily dent as you start to compress it with the knocking in process.
• It is going take hours and it is going to get on everyone's nerves because it is noisy.

Problems that they don't tell you about...



8/9/15 Update on this bat.

It's the end of the season and it's going well, no obvious damage to it at all and Joe's score runs with it and I've borrowed it a couple of times and similar to Joe scored runs and if weren't for the bloke at the other end being bowled we both looked set to beat our current best scores in a match with this bat. It seems to be that it's light and has a good pick-up and we've just been able to play with a lot more aggression and positivity. I'm so impressed with the bat I've just ordered one for myself!

I then thought okay who is this company, and what's the deal with the English Willow? Knowing a little bit about this I thought this claim could easily be stretching the truth a little or it could be an outright lie.

Scenario 1. It may be that this is a genus of Willow that is found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere "salix alba caerulea"or White Willow that has the characteristics and properties that suit bat making, has been taken as saplings or seeds and then grown in India. So in essence you could claim that this is 'English Willow' because it's the genus that is found in England?

That sounds to the uninitiated like a fair ploy, but you miss some fundamental facts that are massively important when looking at Bat Willow (salix alba caerulea) above and its properties and characteristics... The growing conditions. I might be wrong, but I've always been under the impression that the worlds best superior willow is grown in a specific area in England - Essex or Suffolk (See map).

And this is down to the climate and geographic features. I have noted whilst researching this article that there companies based in the north of the UK that have started to grow willow for the same purpose see here but having said, that this opening article alludes to the fact that they confirm that they get most of their willow from the region I've indicated.

So any willow that is grown outside of East Anglia (Essex & Suffolk) and stored in conditions and weather found in the same region, doesn't have the same properties and characteristics. Yes it's the same tree genus, but the weather and growing conditions do not produce the same superior willow.

Scenario 2 Even more unlikely - they buy all the duff wood from companies such as JS Wright & Sons and GR Green, put it in containers and ship it out to India to make bats that they can claim are made of English willow? Again, I can't find any evidence of this at all and even if they did - it would be the duff wood that we reject.

Scenario 3 They just lie? The wood is bog standard Kashmir Willow grown in India.

You've only got to type in cricket bat manufacturing in Youtube and you'll get a massive insight into the type of industry this is and the scale of these industries. This video here gives a good over-view...

Furthermore if you try and look deeper into the company that has supplied my bat, you'll struggle to get that far, the details are very scant, but it appears to be a similar small scale company as those you'll find if you search Youtube as suggested above.

Bibliography/Sources

Salix Cricket Bat Company
http://www.salixcricketbats.com/inside-salix/manufacturing.html
Imperfections in Willow
http://www.cricketbatwillow.com/imperfections-in-willow
English Willow facts
http://www.quantumcricket.com/willow.html
JS Wright and sons
http://www.cricketbatwillow.com/
Buying and choosing Kashmir cricket bats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcnzdUNPKm8
Master Bat makers view on bats
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/787773.html

Conclusion at this point so far.

I'm quite happy to take the risks involved in this process, it may be the case that both these Ebay bats play like dogs, but if you do your research there are a number of pro's and con's relating to the use of Kashmir Willow bats and this bloke here explains the differences in a neutral way.

The main reason I advocate their use is that neither my son or I bat that well and it's pointless buying an expensive bat. Yes, we could buy cheap Kashmir Slazenger bats where you know what you're buying and you can go to the shops and pick one up and feel the weight and whether it suits you, but a bigger thicker bat such as Bat 3 as far as I'm aware you wont be able to buy for £30. It's a risk, but that remains to be seen. Watch this space.


The conclusion - If you have a look at the other 3 posts where I bought and knocked in a couple of Kashmir bats, you'll see that I've had to come to the following conclusions below. My mission here was to actually test these out and offer some evidence as to why they are either good or bad. Unfortunately, they did turn out to be pretty poor...

(1). There's no apparent grading system for them, you can't seemingly buy Kashmir Willow of better quality. It may be the case that if you're in India there's some way that you can source the wood closer to the point where it's shaped and therefore make choices about the bat you buy, but here in the UK this isn't possible and you have to buy what's on the shelf.

(2). A high quality English willow bat here in the UK is going to cost you almost £500, a bat that costs £30 is never going to match that. But what might that £30 be capable of - it would never be good enough for a bloke that expects to walk out on the wicket and score 50 runs every game, but would it be any good for a tail-ender?

(3). Both the bats were knocked in to some extent despite some of the advice on-line advising not to do so. Both bats despite being knocked in to differing extents suffered major damage within a short period being used in the nets against Bola plastic cricket balls. Neither bat was used against being propelled at a speed faster than 68mph.



Finally my next move is to look at this company as an option...
http://www.msrcricketbats.co.uk/about-msr/



Bibliography/Sources...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZkIV6jz8h4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcnzdUNPKm8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrEUC42Vi5I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BffU7Fwx3Qk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_e3AFndzmM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgM8ouMuiJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=410v5fkvoYI
http://www.handmadebats.co.uk/store/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEbEENWnICo - Jason Mellet
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/an-employee-shaves-wood-from-the-blade-of-a-handmade-warsop-news-photo/473977596
http://cricketgearreviews.com/the-deep-and-dark-secrets-of-cricket-bat-making/ - Jason Mellet
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/english-and-kashmir-willow.42007/page-2
http://www.cricketdirect.co.uk/all-about-cricket-bats.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwLa5gALio
 - this video is interesting as it's a bat being made in India
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35070666  - Kashmir willow


For an objective test on Kashmir bats have a look at this video here (Click on the image).

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Working on my batting

Another session in the nets last night, another hour so we (Joe and I) had about half an hour each and it does feel like it is making a difference. Looking at my batting from the videos in Sept/October I feel that there's been a significant improvement, but I am tempering that with some caution as I do realise that the way the machine operates it might be a lot more consistent than someone bowling at you on a pitch along with all of the variations that the pitch produces? But I think the biggest move forwards is that I just feel more confident and possibly less scared of the ball which are needless to say key factors.

This is me back in September prior to ever batting in the nets against a machine.

Then this below is last night after 3 half hour sessions... Double click the image for the video.

With regards facing real bowlers and the natural inconsistencies they have as an intrinsic aspect of their bowling, when facing my younger son Joe (Bloke in the video above) now, I'm a lot more confident and able to play him with far more finesse and ease, so the prospects going forwards do seem to be positive.

I'm still struggling with balls targeted at the leg-stump area, but increasingly despite the awkward approach and technique I am hitting the ball and for the most part keeping it along the ground, but there's more work to do.

In conjunction with my other recent blogs and the experiments with the Kashmir bats, the bad news for Kashmir bats is that it's not going that well have a look here.