Cricket
Another of our major sports and it’s the one that dominates the store’s space throughout the year.
All the top brands and many of the best supporting brands are represented in all types of equipment, clothing and footwear. We hope to offer the best advice and service that can be found anywhere. Choosing a new bat is probably the most personal sporting decisions anybody makes. While our bats will not choose an owner like Harry Porter’s wand, our help and experience and our stock of over 500 bats from at least twelve suppliers will give all cricketers the chance to find their ideal weapon to take on all bowlers.
Bats
Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore and Kookaburra are the big three traditional bat brands and are stocked extensively from £60 right up to £400. Popular prices range from around £120 to £200 and we stock most of their ranges in various qualities. Major support brands are the ever popular Newbery, Slazenger, local favourite Hunts County and superb blades from hand-made specialist Salix. Newer additions to our ranges include Puma, Adidas, Nike, SS and the amazing Mongoose with their powerful shorter blades.
Junior bats from all our suppliers start from around £25 to £50 in Kashmir willow. English willow (with our marvellously cool and damp climate) grows better here than anywhere else on earth, to produce the best quality wood, and junior bats in English willow start from around £50, with popular models mostly £70-£100 and the top quality blades range from £130 right up to £200.
Please also note our recommendations on bat preparation and care. We stock all the bat care products: fibre tape, anti-scuff facings, hammer-edge sheets, new grips of every make, colour and type and the cones to put them on, preparation mallets, linseed oil, toe protectors, you’ll ever need bar one - sorry it’s the hardware store for sandpaper.
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Cricket ‘Softs’ and Protection
We stock protection ‘soft’ goods from all our bat suppliers as well as Aero’s amazing ‘strippers’ – all-in-one thigh pads. Batting gloves are from £7 to £70, Pads from £17 to £120, Thigh Pads £7 to £30, Arm Guards £6 to £15, Inner Thigh Pads (c£10), Chest Pads (£15-£20) and of course ‘boxes’ (£3-£15)
Sizing is mostly ‘Boys’ (approx 9-13 years), ‘Youths’ (12-16) and ‘Mens’. In some cases there are smaller options for the very young cricketer or Small or Large Mens sizes in some of the better models.
Wicketkeeping
A great range of 20-30 models is stocked thanks to my involvement. Many favourite models from Kookaburra (including their latest top of the range model at £150), Aero, Puma, Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore, Hunts County, Adidas, Slazenger and Readers from £25 are stocked. Inner gloves from £5-16, pads from £20-60 and even Aero wicketkeeper face grills (£40/£45).
Helmets
Specialist market leading suppliers Albion C&D and Masuri lead our selection of Helmets. Five models of Albion from £40 to £130 are supported by Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore, Hunts County, Slazenger and Puma. Specialist wicket keepers face grills from Aero, spare grills, inners, chin cups and screws are also stocked. Main choices now are cloth covered or not and whether to stretch out for the ultra-light titanium grilled models starting from £80. Remember Unlike most equipment, Helmets should not suffer much wear and tear (hopefully) and heads only change size very slowly and all models are adjustable.
Bags
Please tell us if you have viewed a larger range! What with all the equipment cricketers own nowadays its crucial to look after it all with a robust bag, mostly with wheels for easy moving. From £15 for smaller juniors, £30 for the basic wheeled bags, right up to £100 for fantastic top of the range models. Once again all the bat brands have a comprehensive range which we stock most of. Many styles from Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore, Kookaburra, Hunts County and Newbery lead the way as well as selective quality models from Aero, Salix, Puma, Slazenger and Albion.
All types are stocked-huge wheeled bags to the smallest junior bag, as well as back-pack types, upright bags, duffle ‘net’ bags as well as full and blade only bat covers, with or without shoulder straps from all our bat brands.
Balls, Sets & Accessories
Readers leather balls are very much the market leader for match balls, and we stock models from £6 to £25. Supporting brands are mostly Kookaburra, Gray-Nicolls and Hunts County. We carry colour options and many practice types-notably the ever popular Incredible range in all colour/size and type options, also the Gunn & Moore Swing King and the Readers Windball.
Popular starter sets (including ‘Kwik Cricket’) are from £20/£25 and separate beach/garden bats, balls & stumps of all types-target, spring-back, plastic, match or practice etc. are always stocked along with almost every possible cricket related accessory- spare bails, stump gauges, autograph mini bats, balls and games; bowlers markers, large, narrow and small scorebooks, umpire ball counters even scoreboards!
Clothing
We carry in stock all possible cricket clothing options, obviously trousers and shirts from the tinniest size to XXXXL Adult; Sweaters and Slipovers, plain and coloured trimmed, traditional cable knit and modern fabrics. Hats and caps, socks and jocks straps- now briefs and boxers are far more popular. The most popular brands again are Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore and Kookaburra but other specialist product: Horizon’s excellent socks amongst many, Albion’s brilliant Sun Hat, traditional cap and Umpire’s hat, Nike’s dry-fit clothing, Skins, Canterbury and Kookaburra’s base layer.
We are supplying more and more clubs and colleges with bespoke cricket kit-shirts of course- with embroidery and printing in house. Training wear and coloured kit are increasingly popular, we are happy to supply any requirement.
Footwear
Asics spikes and Adidas’s range lead our cricket range including supportive bowling boots, and models from Puma and Nike add to the quality range we offer (prices £60 to £110). We range many great value models from Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore and Kookaburra - full spikes, half spikes and full rubbers from £30 to £60 in senior sizes and £25 to £40 in juniors (from size 1).