Cricket Bat Clefts

The cricket bat clefts we supply are a little different from Willow cricket bat clefts. 

Like most people who know anything about the game of cricket all of us here, up until recently, were of the view that Willow is the best and only timber suitable or making cricket bats. We all used Willow Cricket Bats and over the years we all paid top dollar for the highest quality Willow Bats. Good quality Willow Bats are fantastic bats. Designed and made well they provide excellent ping and rebound, and weight wise they have good pick up and feel. No one here has any issues with using and recommending Willow Bats.

The question is though, “Why is Willow deemed to be the only suitable timber for making cricket bats?”. 

A few years ago, we stepped outside the box and decided to test this ages old “cricket lore”.  What we found surprised us greatly and what we did not find also surprised us greatly.

In terms of the later we spent a great deal of time researching and trying to gather scientific data and information that gave reason as to why Willow is the best and only. In truth we found very little. Compared to other sports like golf, tennis, and baseball there is a dearth of such data on cricket bats. So much so that went about developing our own. We set up a bat testing unit and spent many months testing bats and obtaining data and providing such data to Engineers for evaluation. Part of the testing process included testing prototype bats made from a wide range of other timber species. In all we tested thirteen different timbers. What surprised us was that Willow rated very low in all the key characteristics and properties tested. In net trials the alternate timber bats were found to be equal if not better than Willow in terms of feel, ping and ball exit speed from the bat.      

The fact is that Willow is not the only timber that can be used to make cricket bats. We now make bats and supply cricket bat clefts out of a wide range of alternate timbers and in tests we have established these bats to be superior to Willow Bats in many ways.

It does not stop there. Once we established the best alternate timbers we then set about sourcing and testing different timber types within each species. For this we imported timber from growers all over the world. We found that within each species type there are properties and characteristics that vary greatly and that determining the right type to use is critical. Within each species there are types that are suitable for bat making and types that are less suitable. As an example, some types of Maple will tend to fracture when subjected to high impact loads and some types of Oak will split.   

We now sell a wide range of cricket bat clefts to bat makers who are looking to expand their bat making to include timber types other than Willow. We have invested heavily in researching and sourcing growers globally and in testing samples of their timbers. In all we have tested around 40 timber species from growers across Europe, Asia, Australia, NZ and the USA.

The clefts we supply are tested and assessed for the following properties:

• Compressive Strength
• Tensile Strength
• Hardness
• Moisture Content
• Appearance
  
  

Clefts are supplied precut and ready for the bat maker to shape and cut to the profiles they design. We also provide support and backup to assist bat makers in terms of the tooling required to work the timbers and on pressing, oiling, and breaking in bats. 

Use the button below to find out about the sample packs we offer bat makers to allow them to explore how to work with alternate types and to make bats for testing.