Stuart Cope
London, United Kingdom
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On Saturday I took a little drive into Birmingham to pick out a new cricket bat for the season (the 20 mile drive took me nearly two hours!) and it got me thinking......
I'm just a club cricketer but I'm very picky. I couldn't care less about the brand, all I'm bothered about is the feel of the bat, the way it picks up, is the sweet spot generous and slightly low on the blade as we tend to play on slow decks in Warwickshire.
I went to three different bat makers in Birmingham, the first place only had 10 bats to look at, none felt right, so onto the next place. It said it was open, but I turned up and it was shut, so third time was the charm. I met Abid at A7 Cricket, and I was with him for nearly two hours, I picked up at least 50 blades before falling in love with one particular bit of wood.
When I was younger and a better player I would get bats for free but now I'm older and sh*tter, I don't have that luxury. If I'm to spend £300+ on willow, I'm not doing this online and risk getting something that doesn't feel right.
In February, March & April why don't bat makers go on the road in a van and book appointments with clubs and players? If a bat maker booked in an appointment at my club (Kenilworth CC) at preseason training they would have access to 40 senior players and over 100 junior players, I have no doubt they would sell a good number of blades in one hit. Go one step further, could appointments be booked in for at home visits and the van is essentially a showroom? The batmaker could do visits in the evenings and weekends when customers are actually available..
Maker&Son do this with sofa's coming directly to your door and it works.
This is hardly the most innovative idea but I've never heard of a bat maker doing this, yes there would be overheads but if you used a free booking software tool such as Calendly or Square then plugged it into your website and socials you're off. The bat maker then just needs to market effectively to their local audience and do outbound calls/emails with local clubs, you could even offer the club a group discount if they purchase a minimum order of bats.
Anyways, this is a ramble but for all the cricket badgers out there, would you use this type of service....... 🤔
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