Willow Dreams

He weld his blade like a dark knight slaying the hate filled dragon, driving and cutting him away from where he stands, swerving only to see the rush of blood race through his hands to the weapon. His memory evoking thoughts of his by-gone heroes that once graced the hallowed turf of his home ground.

**Ring ** Ring **

Rudely this fantasy of raising his bat towards the members pavilion of the MCG is interrupted by the mundane tasks of work. At least we have dreams, and for me a new axe to carry around come the time that the frost lifts from my local cricket ground.

Having spent much of my short time playing cricket begging, borrowing or bargaining for a cheap cricket bat, by a stroke of luck, or shall we say constant badgering my lovely wife released the purse in my pursuit for the perfect blade.

So it seemed a simple task, take a large wad of the hard earned cash, go to the nearest stockist and select something that had the look of ‘run machine’ written all over it. Well so you would think, and then it got me thinking, why not get a memory of cricket a piece of willow I’d be proud to hand down the generations, something I’m proud to pack in the sack at 11am.

So with this all in mind I travelled up the road in search of something customized, something that will ever be mine and on the return to the sun drenched country a constant reminder of summer days stalking the green fields of Hampshire & Devon, of time lost in search of the perfect Ale among the good, the bad and the ugly of cricket types.

Thinking Hampshire it made perfect sense for it to have been carved here in the fine county of the New Forest pony, Ringwood Ale and dare I mention Craig David. Chase Sports the fine suppliers to Shaun Udal the former Hampshire Spinner the one SK Warne made us forget.

Up in Dummer, just before Andover hidden in a sheep shed sits a production line of willow made into wands, shuffling my way though grade, weights, heights, width and colour of course I finally found that perfect bat for the non-batsman and made to shape for the player that is looking to neither improve but occasionally walk away with a N.O after his name.

So what does it look like? It’s a Long Handled, 12.5 Weight Finback Chase 150. 

Thanks to Chase Sports and all the guys at Dummer, lets hope we have some good stories come August 2012.