Cricket Bat Preparation and Maintenance Guide
Oiling
For natural finish (untreated) cricket bats:
Before use, apply a light coating of raw linseed oil (bat oil) to the face, back edges and toe with the fingers and palm of the hand. Avoid oiling the splice area.
3 or 4 further coats should be applied to the face, edges and toe at about weekly intervals. Clean the bat using fine sand paper before each application. Repeat occasionally if the bat is very dry.
After oiling lay the bat flat for a few hours.
For bats with a cover on the face:
Apply oil as described above, but only to the back, uncovered edges and toe.
For polycoated bats:
No oiling is required, however, during play the polycoating will wear from the toe area and the exposed willow should lightly oiled as described above.
Knocking In
All bat faces have been expertly pressed to provide an optimum resilient playing surface and do not need further pressing. However, the face, especially the front edge, will be further improved and its useful life prolonged by careful 'knocking-in' with an old leather cricket ball, or a specially designed bat mallet.
A few words of caution: take great care when knocking in the edges and toe as hitting too hard may crack the willow - take your time and be patient! The blade should be knocked in on the face of the bat including the edges of the face but not on the sides of the blade, the underneath of the toe or back of the blade.
Playing In
After knocking-in, the bat should be used to hit short catches and/or "throw-downs" with an old, good quality cricket ball. It is advisable to intially avoid use against a new ball in either nets or a match.
Maintenance
To maintain your bat in peak condition we recommend you to follow this simple advice
Don'ts
- Expose the bat to extremes of temperature.
- Avoid prolonged spells in car boots/trunks/interiors.
- Don't over-oil. It is more dangerous to over-oil than to under-oil. Over-oiling adds weight, spoils driving power and may cause rot.
- Don't ever, ever stand the bat in oil.
- Don't allow the bat to become damp.
- Don't misuse or treat carelessly of the pitch, for example at nets, or in changing rooms.
- Don't use cheap hard balls. These damage the bat.
- Don't continue to play with a damaged bat; this will aggrevate the damage to a point where the bat may be betond repair.
Repairs & Service
In normal use, superficial face and edge marks along with slight surface cracking will occur. This is to be expected; it does not detract from the performance of the bat and may be ignored.
Other damage, such as splitting of the toe as a result of hitting a yorker, or damage caused by a miss-timed shot (which happens even to the best player!) can more often than not be repaired and the repaired bat will continue to give excellent service.
The bat should be returned to us after obtaining a returns number - we will evaluate the problem and assess the extent and viability of any work that may be necessary and make the relevant arrangements to have this carried out for you.
For addition information on our returns policy please follow the link below: