A short history
Paul and Sally Bradbury have been making the finest cricket bats available for 17 years. Founded in Tasmania, Australia, players such as Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and fellow Australian team members were quick to gain the advantages of using the best available. So highly regarded amongst first class players, Bradbury did not advertise or promote as demand was, and still has, never been met.
In a response to request from County players, in 2001, Bradbury moved to Somerset, England to compete with the big brands on a truly international playing field. The past seven years has been a juggle between Australia and England, with the majority of time spent in the later due to a market growing quicker than anticipated. Now the batmakers have returned home to be based in Fremantle, Australia where they can continue to make for the international cricketing elite, as well as emerging superstars.
Off the field, the move of the bat making set up back to Australia has opened up huge opportunity for market growth in Australia, New Zealand and emerging Asian countries.
About us...
How long does it take to make a bat?
This really does depend on when you consider the bat making to begin. The tree takes between 15 and 40 years to grow. It is milled, and then dried over 12 months. How much time spent on the bat from then on is subject to a great number of variables, like who you are making for... the record is 3 days when an English Test Player earnt the title of fussiest customer. We obviously cannot afford to tolerate too many customers like this, we would never get any real work done!
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How did you get into bat making?
Like most things, it was circumstance and opportunity. Paul was sponsored by another, large company, as he was in the Warriors State Squad, the bat he had was in need of a re-balance, that was when he met the owners of Millichamp & Hall, became the first apprentice in the UK within weeks after commenting on how it looked like a good job. However, to say it was an apprenticeship is a bit inaccurate, as he had not made a bat for them when he left for Tasmania (to play cricket) four years later- that too was when they were taken over by a large multi-national.
So, do you really handcraft, and what is better, machine made or hand made?
A badly made bat, is a badly made bat... it does not matter if it is machine made, or hand made. Like any craft, there is good and not so good, good tailors, good butchers, good hairdressers- each use hand crafting, also machines to gain the end result.
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We do, to a point handcraft each bat. When once trees were cut down by manually sawing now a chain saw is used, once split with a massive mallet and wooden pegs- now more often a preferred means is the hydraulic splitter... does this mean they are cut down or split in an inferior way?
When we began, our press was operated by turning a steering wheel, to move the rollers- needing 2 men to operate. We now have a motor on it and it takes half the time, with one person pressing, and we definately get a smoother, more consistent result.
The bat is tested by a wooden bat mallet simulating a ball on the face... by hand. We listen to the pitch of the ping, feel the rebound through the reaction of the mallet, something I am sure there is a machine around that could do it, but we get our best results this way. Sure, you can also have a hit in the nets, but then, it depends on how your form is.
We use bandsaws, lathes, hand planes as well as electric ones- a binding machine that rotates the bat while we wind the twine on the handle. However, we still polish with a shin bone soaked in oil and hand sand the final product because we have not found a better way to get a better result. That is the reason why we would change what may have been done for the past 200 years, for a better result- otherwise, we stick with it!
By the way, protective facing IS better than oil.
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