Patents from the archive: Nicolls and Wavex

In the late 1880’s Levi James Nicolls created a novel method of making a bat handle, for which he subsequently filed a patent (No. 14,250) in October 1888.  The handle was referred to as ‘The Automatic Bat Handle’ in magazine adverts.  One of these bats was used by WG Grace to score over 1,000 runs, and his 100th century.

Tendulkar's Magic Bat - epilogue

Well, it didn't go quite to plan. Only 18 in the World Cup Final, and out to a in-two-minds push away from the body, caught behind off Lasith Malinga.  India won anyway, since they have an astonishingly brilliant batting line-up.  But, what possessed the little Master to change his bat in the semi-final, and continue into the final?  Could it have been some gently applied pressure of adidas, one of his big sponsors?

"Please Lord Sachin, it's the world cup semi-final. Could you go out and score a a lot of runs with a nice new shiny adidas bat.  Zillions and gazillions are watching, and they aren't going to get turned on by those mucky old bats you usually trot out with, huh?"

I do hope it wasn't this. He is cataclysmically more important to cricket than a being a celebrity clothes horse to sell product, and be denied the best chance to craft his 100th century on such a grand stage in his home city by such a cheap compromise.

I hope it's revealed in any future ST biography. I'm intrigued.

Tendulkar's Magic Bat?

So, Sachin Tendulkar decided to take a new bat into the World Cup semi-final.  Well there's nothing interesting about that on its own.  However, his 85 run innings must have been one of the most charmed of all time in such an important match.  He was dropped four times, almost stumped (saved by one video frame) and given not out to an LBW appeal that left even the die-hard supporters of URDS looking in to their tea leaves for re-assurance.  Had this cricketing God imbued special powers on this new bat to try and get him to a World Cup final in his home city? If you believed in the supernatural you would say it could happen.

The Edge - innovation or gimmick?

Following on from the Dual T20 (double sided bat), GN have produced another novelty bat called The Edge for 2011.  Is this another case of letting the Marketing Department sniff glue once again?

The GN marketeers make a worthy opening line for The Edge, "Gray Nicolls continues to innovate the bat making process to keep pace with an ever changing game". Nothing wrong in that, although I thinks this innovation is more like the 'innovations' that appeared in the erstwhile Innovations Catalogue, which was full of things that were novel but mostly pointless. This is why I used the word novelty bat earlier.  It is in no way a genuine innovation.