Your first bat?

[pjcrows]

As I look through the various sports stores for a first bat for my young nephew for Christmas, it got me thinking about my first bat. I had plenty of generic department store bats that came with the token stumps/bails/rubber ball, but what about the first real bat...

Mine was a Gunn & Moore Steve Waugh Autograph from Rowe and Jarmans. Blue and red stickers. Standard blue grip "upgraded" to the red/white/blue smudge grip - because Steve had one.

I took it everywhere. Genuinely slept with it under the pillow for the first week.

The green and blue stickered "Premium" came along the a few summers later and the blue and red one lost it's appeal. Had slowly bashed a large angle on the toe too, so it was time to move on.

Following the G&M was a Kookaburra Bubble (Ponting), Slazenger V800 (M Waugh) and then finally a Grey Nicchols Sabre with a double grip (Elliott and Blewy). Scored my first tonne with this beauty.

Many hours were spent scouring the catalogues each summer. I pined for a Millichamp & Hall with the cork inserts like Bevo, but by the time they took off I'd stopped playing.

Memories.

What was your first bat?

 

[Pugsley]

 

[Art Vandelay_]

The classic.

 

[pjcrows]

The classic.

That's the one!

 

[PhatBoy]

Hahaha I had a lot of these bats.

First was a sticker-less 2nd hand but amazingly good Symonds Tusker.

Next came the Kookaburra Bubble Plus. Ponting used one when he debuted I think.

Then came the Grey Nicholls Sabre with the double scoops, basically a rebranded Dynadrive. Hit my first 2 centuries with it and still have it in the shed to this day.

Been bludging bats off clubmates ever since, mostly a Slazenger V600 for the last 4 years.

 

[PhatBoy]

 

[PhatBoy]

 

[Doss]

A Fisher, of some description. I can't recall which model exactly.

Most people will of course have a blank expression and probably wonder what the hell a Fisher is, but cricket disciples in the inner west of Melbourne may well be familiar; it was (and I think still is) a small independent bat maker based in West Footscray, on Williamstown Road. Father took me there to get that bat when I was 10 I reckon.

A beautiful piece of wood.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

A Fisher, of some description. I can't recall which model exactly.

Most people will of course have a blank expression and probably wonder what the hell a Fisher is, but cricket disciples in the inner west of Melbourne may well be familiar; it was (and I think still is) a small independent bat maker based in West Footscray, on Williamstown Road. Father took me there to get that bat when I was 10 I reckon.

A beautiful piece of wood.

Kingsville. Awesome bats.
Our club bought 3 to be the communal bats. Used it instead of my own.

 

[big_e]

Gray Nicholls GC Scoop

 

[Natho]

1st. Slazenger v800. Absolute beauty.
2nd. That green backed kookaburra punter used.
3rd. Puma vendetta. Beast of a bat but snapped it
4th. Screaming cat. Best bat I've ever had.

 

[JC Hawks]

Kookaburra Kahuna at the peak of Ricky Ponting's career. An easy choice.

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

A Fisher, of some description. I can't recall which model exactly.

Most people will of course have a blank expression and probably wonder what the hell a Fisher is, but cricket disciples in the inner west of Melbourne may well be familiar; it was (and I think still is) a small independent bat maker based in West Footscray, on Williamstown Road. Father took me there to get that bat when I was 10 I reckon.

A beautiful piece of wood.

Amazing bats. Got my first one 9 years ago and refuse to use anything else.

 

[Whowants2know]

Mine was a yellow plastic kanga cricket bat.
Does that count

 

[t_94]

Slazenger v900 eclipse, about two weeks after Michael Clarke made his debut century.

 

[PhatBoy]

I reckon there are two types of bat tragic in amateur cricket (and probably professional cricket as well).

The ones who get a new bat every five seconds irrespective of how their current one is going, just because they can't help themselves, and the ones who just keep using the same stick for 15 years even though the manufacturer hasn't produced that model for nigh on a decade.

The best player I ever played with had a V500 from about 1997 through until he pulled the pin 3 years ago.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

My first bat was a stuart surridge (don't think it was the jumbo) - ended up splitting at the splice.

Then got a Grove bought a sa gift which was shithouse and ended up using the club Colt bat

 

[PhatBoy]

I used a hero Honda very briefly. It was shithouse. Handle was too thin for the blade, weighted terribly - worst bat I ever had

 

[Gough]

County Colt, D.K.Lillee signature.

 

[PhatBoy]

Was anyone else like me when they were a kid, in that when they saw a brand used only by tailenders, they just automatically assumed it was a shit brand?

When I was little the only test players who used County were guys like merv Hughes. So I just naturally assumed they were fvcking shit. When Gary Kirsten came along and started using one it almost made me think he was better than he was because he managed to do it with a piece of junk stick

 

[Gough]

Dennis Lillee is hardly a ringing endorsement for a bat, I remember thinking that at the time.

 

[Demosthenes]

A Dean Jones Kookaburra, can't remember the exact model.

 

[Cristiano Ronaldo]

Kookaburra Kahuna at the peak of Ricky Ponting's career. An easy choice.

Same here

 

[danger_to_walker]

My first real bat - Gray Nicolls Ultimate 1000, 2.8, peeled off runs with this bad boy's hollow core rebounding system...
Added the Slazenger V800 to the stable purely because of my obsession with Mark Waugh, but nothing compares to your first.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Gray Nicholls Scoop with the fake Greg Chappell signature. Still got it, too.