September 24, 2012

To Splice or Not To Splice


A post sometime ago on the Cricinsight forum entitled 'Innovative yet forgotten bats'  drew attention to the GM Galaxy and the Newbery Hi-Tec as possibly "the earliest spliceless bats".  This got me thinking, were these really the earliest spliceless bats? If you look back through the long history of cricket bats it is clear that a statement like this is re-inventing the past.  So, for my own peace of mind, and to add some accuracy here is a little insight.

The earliest cricket bats from the 17th Century were made from a single piece of wood, and therefore did not possess a splice.  At the time they were not called spliceless bats, just bats. In the context of current bat language, these would and should be your ‘earliest spliceless bat’.