Hi, I’m Stuart
Tempus Cricket was founded during the height of a little-known pandemic called Covid 19 in the 2020/21 cricket season, by accredited ‘Willow Blue’ bat marker named, Stuart Delphin aka: me! Although the restriction of home detentions bothered a lot of people, it was a perfect storm for me to undertake and complete my qualifications as a bat maker under a new era of online guidance from the founder of Willow Blue, Master Bat Maker and former Australian Test Cricketer, Ian Callen.
Ian Callen has dedicated his life to creating a sustainable cricket bat industry here in Australia and has passed on his craftsmanship to a range of willing like-minded bat makers across Australia and abroad, in a hope to keep the art of handcrafting cricket bats and the willow production industry alive in Australia. I take my hat off to Ian and recognise not only the hard work he has put into this industry, but also the amount of blood, sweat, tears & of course the bucket loads of cash to get this willow industry up and going to where it is today.
The Willow Blue story began in 1976 when Ian Callen discovered that English Willow had been sent to Australia in 1902 by the English Test Captain, Archie MacLaren. MacLaren, whilst honeymooning in Healesville was struck by the similarities to Healesville’s English climate. MacLaren organised cuttings of willow to be sent to Bob Crockett an Australian Test Umpire and bat repairer, who later became the founder of Australia’s famous ‘Crockett’ cricket bats. As a result, a plantation was established along “Jim Crow Creek” at Shepherd’s Flat near Daylesford in Victoria. This plantation produced bats for Australian Test players until it was bought by Slazenger in 1956 and sadly cut down, putting an end to an Australian willow industry. Luckily for us, a few willow trees were accidently planted on the neighbouring property and survived the culling, enabling root stock to be collected and propagated by Ian.
Eventually in 1994 after 9 years of frustrating setbacks for Ian, it was on 25 acres of Watts River flood plain in Healesville that our first “Salix Alba Caerulea” (English willow) trees were planted from this original root stock of 1902. English Willow or ‘Willow Blue’ as the trees are known to us, are now thriving and being harvest at a sustainable rate to ensure the industry successfully continues for decades to come…
Ian’s experience in the industry over the past 40 odd years has given me and many more like minded cricket enthusiasts the opportunity to become bat makers and pass his legacy on to create an amazing Australian grown willow industry, with our bats having astounding rebound qualities as good, if not better, then what is traditionally grown by our English counterparts!
We have found that Willow Blue produces a lot more colour than willow grown in England and other parts of the world and therefore is not as white as our counterparts. This beautiful colour we produce in our bats does not affect the playing ability across any of the grades, it just looks different to what we have been conditioned to see in bats.
The big companies we all know, unfortunately hold the monopoly over the majority of the willow industry supply. The best grades and whitest and lightest of clefts are reserved for these companies who can purchase thousands of thousands of clefts at a time to gobble up any opportunity for the little guys to buy small quantities. This is why, Willow Blue was formed in Australia, to grow locally grown willow that can supply local bat makers without the massive import cost or enormous order sizes required to allow for the little Ozzie battler ‘to have a go’ and provide quality bats to our local clubs and communities and more importantly to keep the tradition of bat making alive in Australia!
Ian has only recently retired to enjoy the fruits of his labour and passed his wisdom and the Willow Blue torch down to his successor, Scott Boyack from Yakka Cricket.
Willow Blue timber can only be sold to accredited Willow Blue Bat Makers. Tempus Cricket is proud to be part of this amazing family and looks forward to expanding and perfecting the art of bat making for many years to come.
