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Duncan Fearnley Bats

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Was thinking before about how much I'd love to see someone come out with an old school DF and take the attack apart.

Anyways, for the record, how many of the stars of the 1980s used them?

Richards
Border
Crowe

What others?

And is there any reason why they haven't managed to have any sort of international presence, basically since Border retired?
 

Jacknife

International Captain
I remember Botham used one, Gooch and Lamb from the England side.

Used to have a DF Magnum in the 80's, had such a sweat middle on it compared to other bats of the time I used, like the V12 or the GN scoop.

Funnily enough they make a Retro DF Magnum bat now, looks just the same as I remember.
 
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Garson007

State Vice-Captain
IIRC DF decided that it was not worth it paying sponsorship fees to supply bats, so they disappeared from the field of play. Utter ****-up of a decision though.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah...if you lose visibility, you're gone.

Same happened with Wilson golf clubs. Used to be the biggest in the world by a long stretch. Tried to force pros into using their latest technology, they didn't like it, moved on, and their market share was gone.

I
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
I never had one, but thought they were very cool.

I seem to remember Graeme Hick being the face of DF for a while there.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Duncan Fearnley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the same time he established his highly successful eponymous bat-manufacturing company, during the early years Fearnley got many of his ex-playing colleagues and opponents to use his products. Introducing new forms of sponsorship, he built the brand around these friends. John Snow was the first to use the Duncan Fearnley bat in an international, with the likes of Basil D'Oliveira and Dennis Amiss close behind.

By the early 1980s, Fearnley had become the dominant brand within the market throughout the world. At the time it seemed everyone was using or wearing the 3 wicket symbol. Leading players such as Sunil Gavaskar, Clive Lloyd, Kepler Wessels, Ian Botham, Graham Gooch, Allan Lamb, Viv Richards, Graeme Pollock, Wasim Akram, Ravi Shastri, Allan Border, Martin Crowe and many more were putting their trust in the product.

In 1986 he became Worcestershire's high-profile chairman. He attracted some big names - notably Ian Botham - and the county won two County Championships, two Sunday League titles, one Benson & Hedges Cup and one NatWest Trophy title in his 12 years as chairman, as well as more than doubling the membership.

During the 90s the marketplace changed, with lots of smaller brands developing, and cricket bat production started to move overseas to India and Pakistan. Fearnley firmly resisted this trend and cut production accordingly, still concentrating on totally hand-crafted bats at its factory in Worcester.
 

uvelocity

International Coach
only had one bat as a kid, was a DF. Red in colour, I don't think they had names did they? like bubble (most popular at the time)
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Yep same. GN Scoop, SS Jumbo and the Duncs were the cool blades when I was a kid.
I had
and a Gray Nic PowerSpot


Used to think that Powerspot had such a great middle. Had a hit with it a couple years back, terrible..
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Was thinking before about how much I'd love to see someone come out with an old school DF and take the attack apart.

Anyways, for the record, how many of the stars of the 1980s used them?

Richards
Border
Crowe

What others?

And is there any reason why they haven't managed to have any sort of international presence, basically since Border retired?
Me :ph34r:

Had a contract with them for a while and Magnums were a great bat and coolest at the time

Unfortunately, they were too heavy for me (3lb really felt like 3 lb) so used others from their range ("Ian Botham Attack" and one other) for a while but they were complete planks

Also made excellent protective gear - think they were the first to put reinforcement on index/middle finger of bottom hand

Best I used were Stuart Surridge "Ultimate Jumbo" - same design as Jumbo but maximum weight of 2' 8"
 

adub

International Captain
Yep, then Symonds Tuskers came along too.
100%

Would you believe my brother in law has dragged my sorry arse out for my first summer in about 6 years and his first for about 10. He has also dragged out his Tusker including original Kingsgrove Sports sticker (featuring their old 6 digit phone number!) original Symonds bat case and original Symonds bag for the season. Yes, he has used the same bat and gear since about 1984. I did tell him that the old buckle style pads had to go though.

By coincidence he was in Steve and Mark Waugh's year at East Hills boys (and tells of the time Tugga put his bowling out of the school and into the train tracks). So an appropriate choice of blade back then perhaps, but maybe time to move on.

Christmas day cricket matches at his parents' place are fought over with the Dunc and Butterfly Scoop bats he had prior to the Tusker...
 

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