THE SIX PRINCIPLES

Grade
DKP offer custom-made bats from Grade 1+ up to Grade 4, offering options for all budgets for both professional and recreational cricketers. For a competitive amateur, a higher grade is often more appropriate, but if you’re just starting out then the opposite can be true.

Handle
In the UK, people tend to like a semi oval or oval handle. Oval handles allow for a V-type groove at the bottom that helps the top hand retain control, meaning it’s easier to play in the ‘V’ and that the bat twists less on impact. Round handles are more suited to wristy players who attack primarily with horizontal shots and are more common in bats that have come from India. Semi oval handles are our most selected, as they aren’t as pronounced as the traditional oval shape, offering a middle ground. We don’t recommend a really thin handle because it compromises the balance of the bat and is more likely to break. If the handle is skinny and the blade is chunky, the handle can’t cope. When making the handle, once it is fitted by our batmaker, it sets for a 24-hour period and is shaped by hand using a spokeshave and drawknife. Then it’s good to go.

Sweet spot
With bespoke bats, the sweet-spot position is hugely important. It doesn’t matter how good the bat is, if this doesn’t suit the player then they won’t get full value. For front foot players, or those who play on low pitches, tend to go for a low middle, and vice versa. We don’t get many high middles in the UK for obvious reasons!

Pick-up
Another key aspect is weight and pick-up. It’s a tricky one as it does depend on preferences, but for weekend cricketers, you don’t want something too light. If you go for an extra low middle with a full profile, then the bat will pick up heavy. In these instances, some prefer us to move the sweet- spot higher, as the bat will then feel lighter. With our heavier bats, offsetting the mass of wood by getting the right balance is essential. When people ask for an ultra-light pick- up, we are able to concave the bat and take wood out of each side, reducing weight while keeping the mass of wood coming through the bat’s core, meaning it still pings.

Length
Pick a blade that’s suitable to your height. We’ve had customers order long blades with long handles – they’re massive and suited to players around 6ft 7in. We always say that you need to make sure you’re the right height, as people tend to assume, wrongly, that the longer the bat the better. Pros sometimes have shorter blades as they hit the ball in the middle more than your average club cricketer, so they can get more wood in the main part of the bat. And they also tend to play on bouncier pitches. You’ve got to make sure that your bat feels height-appropriate.

Pressing
The actual cleft is put into a press machine where it presses through the whole blade, and the shaping of the blade is done using a planer. Once it’s handled, it’s pressed again. If our batmaker doesn’t think the ping and performance are sounding and playing right, he will press it again. It’s down to his expertise. There are certain machines used by other companies where the bat is pressed and shaped, meaning all that’s left from the batmaker is stickering and gripping the bat. We believe that you need more testing through the process to make sure it plays well.

DKP’s Bat Builder

Our bat builder form on the website means customers can select every aspect of their blade from our drop-down menus. It gives you complete control over handle shape, sweet-spot position, profile, weight, length, stickers and almost every other aspect of the bat-making process. If there’s anything you’d like to discuss, you can call or email us. I’ve been doing this for so many years, and have been around cricket my whole life, so we can work out the ideal bat for you based on past bats you’ve got along with. We can produce an individual bat each time. We can get it wrong, but off the back of this we can tweak the bat based off your feedback, so you end up with the ideal wand.

Player replicas

We also offer player replicas, and it’s becoming more popular that people want to have the same bat profile of, say, Joe Root or Sachin Tendulkar. Root is playing on different pitches to the average cricketer though, often playing the ball later and higher up on the bat, so his bat profile is not always suited to someone playing on a turgid English pitch. It’s all about working out what is best for you.

Find out more at dkpcricketonline.com

COLOURED SOFTS

Cricket is changing with the times and many leagues have moved across to coloured kits. We now offer softs that reflect this, with navy, black and maroon options for both gloves and pads, along with offering the bespoke option to have your club logo embossed onto the kit. You can buy a pads and gloves bundle at dkpcricketonline.com starting at £124.99