Your Bat and Ball

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 863, 6 January 1930, Page 6

Your Bat and Ball

HOW THEY ARE MADE Work of Cricket Craftsmen By “Chanticler.” WITH the season now in full swing, a description of the manufacture of cricket balls and bats is of interest to players of all grades. The writer was shown over the factory at Tonbridge, still owned by the Duke family, some years ago, when as much of the various processes as it was deemed politic to explain, was demonstrated to him. y

As long ago as 1760, Timothy Duke of Penshurst, in Kent, first invented the "quartered cricket ball” still in use, and the art of making them is still practised in the factory run by his descendants at Tonbridge. The men who make these balls are all craftsmen and belong to a strong trade union, as do their companion fashioners of the willow blade. The various stages in the manufacture are undertaken by different men who confine themselves to their own particular portion of the work, and highly-skilled work it is, too. The covers are made of best cowhide, steeped in vermilion for some 10 days to make the colour last as long as possible. The centres, called “quilts,” are made by a process secret to all but th» actual maker. This craft is handed down from father to son, and has been in the same family since they were first made. The component parts are cork, feathers, worsped and cork shavings. The skill of the “seamers,” as they ply their awl&, is marvellous. That it is remunerative is shown by the fact that they receive 25s for every dozen balls sewn. The willow logs from which bats are made are seasoned for two years to allow the sap to dry completely. They are then roughly shaped out, and a wedge-shaped piece sawn out, into which cavity the handle, will presently fit. The handles are made separately, of course. Into the composition of each

go 16 lengths of finest Sarawak cane, in groups of four. One end of each group is glued into the blade and the three layers of rubber are inserted to insure springiness and freedom from shock. The binding is put on in a few seconds by a special machine and the rubber grrips, which are now nearly always sold already on the bat. The surface of the blade goes through a number of processes before the bat is pronounced finished. It is rubbed with three grades of sandpaper and then with a metal roller. Finally, to impart a polish, a bone roller is used and the bat is ready for play. Many of these bone rollers, so worn as to be no longer serviceable, are still preserved in Messrs. Duke and Sons’ office and show how many bats must have been produced to wear the solid bone down.