New Ball Manufacturer emerges

Gone are the days when Alfred Reader and his employees hand stitched balls in the vale of Eden in Kent in strict rivalry with Tonbridge Sports Industries down the road.

Dukes balls are still made the traditional way, but by an Essex based company called Morrant.

The Australian ball industry obviously isn't old enough to be have been run by a proper family so their balls are named after some sort of bird. They make them with machines anyway.

It's only really Dukes and SG balls (used in India) that are made by hand now. 98 per cent of everything else is knocked up in factories in India and Pakistan on machines.

Which is why Wickman is so pleased to see a new manufacturer entering the UK market. A small cottage industry in bespoke ball manufacture has sprung up in Teddington called Crane's. The Crane Ball will be ideal for indoor and sub continent conditions and perfect for damp summers consisting as it does entirely from rubber.

Joey will be unplayable indoors with it, but the lack of a seam will not appeal to the dibbly dobbly merchants in the club like MS who rely on it doin a bit in the air and off of the ridge at the Kingston end. Finger and wrist spinners who need a bit of bounce will be delighted. The maker is particularly excited by the prospect of Zammak ripping a few on a hard track at Tiffin. If he can get some decent revolutions on it it will still drift and the built in unpredictability of the bounce will bring a sense of what its like to play on a fifth day test pitch to our own Wick.

Next stop Dragon's Den to pick up some funding for a manufacturing set-up as there's only so many of these that Cransey can knock up during his busy working day. Either that or we can set up a production line in the Lofting Suite.