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Cricket Stores in Central London

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Crescentarian

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Joined
Feb 8, 2011
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Salaam all!

I will be in london for a couple of days in July. I am hoping to visit some good cricket store, which has a WIDE variety if products somewhere in central london (or easily accesible by Tube). I am looking to pick up some new gloves, pads, a few balls, scuff sheets/ hammer edge for bats and MAYBE a bat.

Please let me know if you know any stores. Would love to visit somewhere with a lot of variety, and good value for money!
 
VKS is in Ealing, West London.

The most central places are at Lord's and the Oval.
 
I wore Aero gloves few weeks back and they are the worst worst worst gloves one can ever own seriously I mean it.

For that price I'd buy Puma Kinetic gloves they are much better than Aero gloves.
 
Thanks CD bhai. Puma Iridium 5000 gloves also look great!
I am also looking for an English bat, around $200 range. I am tilting towards Newberry Thruxton 5 star, or B52 bomber players addition, Salix Rogue Select, Puma Iridium 400 ??

i have no experience with these bats, but have read your good reviews about thruxton. Any recommendations from the vks website?
 
Lillywhites on Regent Street.

Sports Direct near St. Paul's.

Lord's or The Oval.
 
Crescentarian said:
Thanks CD bhai. Puma Iridium 5000 gloves also look great!
I am also looking for an English bat, around $200 range. I am tilting towards Newberry Thruxton 5 star, or B52 bomber players addition, Salix Rogue Select, Puma Iridium 400 ??

i have no experience with these bats, but have read your good reviews about thruxton. Any recommendations from the vks website?
Click to expand...

You will be going to VKS or any store and will be picking up the bats yourself correct ?

Okay here is what I will suggest you to do, whatever you buy make sure you keep invoice because you can claim the VAT back which you paid, when you leave Heathrow airport you will see VAT tax return form so grab those and fill them out and attach your invoices and you will get 20% VAT back which you paid in UK when buying gears.

Hmm the bats you listed are over $200 CAD :20:

What is your playing style and where in Canada do you play if you don't mind me asking ?

Salix Rogue is a gamble buy to be honest, I have Salix Rogue which was bought from Asad Bhai. With Asad Bhai I got lucky because he had sent me pictures before I bought and since I know Asad Bhai he inspected the bat for me and tried looking for any defects which he didn't find so I got lucky I'd say. So Salix rogue can be a risky buy but since you will handpick the bat you go there so if you look at the bat closely and see if it doesn't have any defects or damaged then you're better off I'd say.

Puma Iridium is lovely lovely bat if you see my reviews and cricketer13's review we rate them quite high.

But I will take a perfect Salix Rogue over any of those listed bat any day.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
I play in Calgary. Most of the pitches here are turf and fairly new, so the bounce is a bit uneven. It sometime keeps low really bad. So I am kinda looking for a mid-low sweet spot, as i like to go for hits once in a while too. I played at the provincial U18 level, then stopped a couple of years for univ. Now I am back this season and looking to buy some new equipment.

I will be picking the bat in person. Should i look for anything specific other than straight grains, ping, heartwood etc?

Also whats the difference between Newberry Players, 5-star, and SPS edition. I am guessing SPS is the top grade. VKS has Krakatoa 5-star for 68 pounds, it must be really bad then. However, Thruxton Players (199 pnd), Thruxton 5-star (145 pnds) and Bomber players (175 pnds) look quite attractive. Apart from rogue, of course.

Thanks for the advice on VAT. Will keep it in mind. Also do you know any regulations regarding carrying bats on airplanes as hand luggage??
 
Crescentarian said:
I play in Calgary. Most of the pitches here are turf and fairly new, so the bounce is a bit uneven. It sometime keeps low really bad. So I am kinda looking for a mid-low sweet spot, as i like to go for hits once in a while too. I played at the provincial U18 level, then stopped a couple of years for univ. Now I am back this season and looking to buy some new equipment.

I will be picking the bat in person. Should i look for anything specific other than straight grains, ping, heartwood etc?

Also whats the difference between Newberry Players, 5-star, and SPS edition. I am guessing SPS is the top grade. VKS has Krakatoa 5-star for 68 pounds, it must be really bad then. However, Thruxton Players (199 pnd), Thruxton 5-star (145 pnds) and Bomber players (175 pnds) look quite attractive. Apart from rogue, of course.

Thanks for the advice on VAT. Will keep it in mind. Also do you know any regulations regarding carrying bats on airplanes as hand luggage??
Click to expand...

I would personally recommend a mid placed sweetspot bat because with that you can easily go on back and front foot and Thruxton is good example of this.

The golden rule is to buy the bat which feels best in your hands, keep in mind it is not important that the bat which will feel good in my hands will feel good in your hands as well. My taste can be different than your's too so best thing is to pick up wide range of bats and fee which one feels the best in your hands (wear the gloves and try the bats).

I saw VKS and I was really really surprised to see Krakatoa 5 Star for 68 Pounds to be honest, I don't know but I think it might be a junior size bat because it is next to impossible to have a Krakatoa 5 Star for that price. However, if its true then personally I would buy it no matter how disgusting and how crap it looks aesthetically because Newbery bats are known for performance and if I get a good performance from it then I would be good to go and if it turns out to be a dud I can at least use in nets, but this is my thinking :).

The difference is that 5 Star is low end model and is basically a Grade 3 in Newbery's range while Players is Grade 2 and SPS being Grade 1 but most of the Players I have seen (have come from Uzi Sports) and trust me they are as good as SPS version.

Well you can definitely not carry a cricket bat in your hand luggage, gloves etc would be fine I believe but I doubt you can carry a bat in hand luggage because I doubt it will fit in your bag.

Have you decided on gloves ? Do you mind if I ask which ones will you opt out for ?

Are you also going to buy pads ?
 
Thanks CD. Love your expert review. Maybe you should make vids sometimes, like the cricketstoreonline guy.

I have narrowed the bat search down to Newberry and Salix. So now it all depends on whichever feels/looks the best when i test it out in-person.

For gloves, I am thinking Puma Iridium/ Kinetic 4000. Puma make tighter gloves so they suit me the best. I used to have these really nice Puma pads back in the day (they were juniors) and felt really comfortable/light. So i might go for them!

I am also planning to visit lillywhites. They don't have a website, so i can;t browse their selection. But they are located in Picadilly Circus, so i can just walk there from my hotel.

Thanks again!
 
No worries, its my pleasure to help you all with my minimal and little limited knowledge on this. InshAllah in future I will think about it and make videos :)

Newbery and Salix are probably the best English made bats out there, I don't know but I think Salix bats are still handmade, 02thoeva am I correct?

Hmm I would disagree on that with you, I have Puma Iridium 5000, Puma Calibre Tricks LE and Puma Kinetic 5000 gloves and non of them have tight fitting for me at least none of them have it. Calibre and Kinetic gloves in my opinion are slightly big but I'm not sure if you have long fingers/hands. But for it those two models especially turned out to be tad bigger.

As far pads are concerned in my opinion Puma pads are probably the best out there. Puma's mid rnage pads look very nice too so you can't go wrong with either of them.

What is really good is that you will buy all of the stuff in person so try all and buy don't go after brands :D

Go to Lillywhites and others (which are mentioned above) if you can :)

Do you mind if I ask when are you going and would you be able to post pictures of your stuff and review of them on PP (PakPassion)?
 
^^ Thanks SempreSami. I'll make sure not to spend too much time in there. Have you heard of Morrant sports? it looks good as well... http://www.morrant.com/cricket_equipment/

I am planning to be in London July 9 - 12, Inshallah. I'll make sure to upload pics/review once i get the stuff!

btw, I just noticed in this other thread that you have used both Krakatoa SPS and Players? Do you think that SPS is worth that extra 60 pounds? Also any major differences b/w thruxton and krakatoa. (split b/w these two :s)
 
Morrant is rather good, the showroom isn't that big but they'll bring anything from their catalogue out from backstage if you want to see/try it.
 
Crescentarian said:
^^ Thanks SempreSami. I'll make sure not to spend too much time in there. Have you heard of Morrant sports? it looks good as well... http://www.morrant.com/cricket_equipment/

I am planning to be in London July 9 - 12, Inshallah. I'll make sure to upload pics/review once i get the stuff!

btw, I just noticed in this other thread that you have used both Krakatoa SPS and Players? Do you think that SPS is worth that extra 60 pounds? Also any major differences b/w thruxton and krakatoa. (split b/w these two :s)
Click to expand...

I haven't used Krakatoa SPS because I don't own any, however, I have closely inspected both SPS and Players.

To be honest, SPS is worth every single penny. SPS overall is a much better bat overall. In every aspect I found it better, pickup wise, balance wise, ping wise etc everything on SPS is better, SPS is like a perfect and fully uploaded package.

Yes, there is a big difference, Krakatoa has a lower sweetspot while Thruxton's sweetspot is mid-placed.

Since you like to play on back foot more I would recommend you Thruxton because of its sweetspot's position.
 
Salam, one question.

Is the Lillywhites at Picadilly Circus STILL a Lillywhites shop, OR has it been turned into a SportDirect? I will be going to SportDirect @ The Westfield Mall, insha Allah, so no need to go to another SportDirect. However, if the store at Picadilly Circus is a complete other store, then I will take the trip there :)

Appreciate the reply, will save me a lot of time!
Jazak Allah
 
It's a Sports Direct, although with a Lillywhites sign. Same stuff in there, mainly cheap Slazenger bats .
 
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