I’m a highly excitable person, as anyone who’s had the misfortune to play inside the line of one of my ‘mysterious’ non-turning off breaks will know, but today saw me as giddy as a prep-school 12 year old who’s just been told he’s opening the batting on Saturday for the 1st XI. The reason was a long cardboard box with the Salix Cricket Bats logo on it. Back in early April I dropped my beloved Newbery Series 1 off at their workshop in Kent for some sorely needed reconditioning. Too many thick inside edges onto the pads. Too many regulation chances to slip. Too many leading edges back to the bowler. You probably get the picture with the edging… Not to mention a toe battered by digging oneself resolutely into the crease at the start of any number of brief sojurns in the middle.
It might have been replaced halfway through last season by a Salix Pod, a railway sleeper of a thing that masquerades as a beautifully weighted cricket bat, but there will always be a place in my heart for my Series 1. Long-handled, light as a feather, classically beautiful with a lovely grain on it, it’s a bat that is, to be blunt, far too good for the likes of me to wield. On the rare occasions that I have found the middle – generally when giving fielding practice it has to be said – the ball simply melts into the willow and speeds off into the distance with hardly any effort at all.
I can’t recommend Andrew Kimber and Salix highly enough. They’re not cheap, but the craftsmanship and care that goes into their work is obvious from even a brief visit to Butlers Farm and the bats they make really are awesome. And to top that off Andrew and his wife Victoria – who handles the design and admin side of things – are simply really nice, happy to help and efficient.
So, Salix advert over and commission pocketed, back to the battered Series 1… Sanded down back and front, taped up on that inside edge – apprently playing down the right line can be handy – and with the face covered in polyurethane to protect it from the few balls that are middled, the Series 1 is back and ready to terrorise the youngsters of Market Rasen Town Cricket Club when warming up for games and, who knows, perhaps the odd bowling attack along the way.
