Where did my Cricket Bat come from?

Lets not just say from a willow tree well to be exact “Salix Alba Caerulea”.  I meant the shape of the cricket bat.  But whilst here on the ‘willow’ subject the first bats or ‘dog**’ or ‘cricked club’ would have been a solid piece of wood, made from what wood you could get your hands on.  It would of reached your elbow and there was no restrictions on height, width, weight or shape. 

It was a guy called John Small around 1790 that made something resembling what we use now, that is, a blade with square shoulders and after a few experiments it became the norm.  So come 1830 the MCC is established now and some cricket bat laws:

“The bat - most not be more then four inches and a quarter in width at the broadest part. There are no restrctions as to the height of bat, it may be as tall, short or narrow as the player chooses;”

In 1835 the MCC restricted the length of a cicket bat to thrity-eight inches.  Those width and height restrictions still stand today as part of Law 6!!!!!

Ok back to cricket bats…. Around 1830 they started to change from one piece cricket bat to splicing in the handle.  How did these two-part bat come about? Well no one is really sure, “James Cobbett” you could say invented it, he incidently had a 3 spliced cricket bat but it probably came about as part of cricket bat repairs.  That is a they probably noticed a two-part bat came back less often for repairs as it had more give to it.  Well by the the 1860s’ the “new form” cricket bat was here to stay.

What about Willow?

Again it is difficult say when willow was selected as the wood of choice for cricket bats.   Alder and ash have been used for cricket bats particulary Stonyhurst bats.  Willow was probably used by the Professionals and county players and the more amateurs types probably used a hard wood of some type.  Willow became favoured becasue it was not only resilient and tough but it was also light and naturally soft.  Close grained red willow was favoured by W. G. Grace and others for its superior driving powers and mamoth hits.  By the end of of the 1800s the fashion had shifted to almost all white wood cricket bats this had no real foundation other then from the salesmans point of view a white bat probably ‘looked’ better in a sports shop window.  This inturn lead to willow hybrids and “Salix Alba Caerulea”. 

** Dog: As in Cat and Dog - cat being the ball and dog being the bat in  barely recognisable early forms of a game based on cricket

Andy
Podshaver for San Andreas Fault Cricket Bats
Handmade Cricket Bats

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