I grew up in a smallish country town north-east of Melbourne called Kinglake. We lived slightly on the outskirts of town, and being the youngest of 3 brothers, my passion for backyard cricket on a 5acre property grew strong at an early age. This occurred during the period when the buzz of Kerry Packer’s one-day international games were igniting a new obsession for cricket across the country.
My brothers and I would mow a full-length cricket pitch through the sheep paddock and invite our mates around for a game of taped-ball cricket that could last the whole weekend. At the age of 11, I signed up to the Kinglake junior team for my first ever real competitive season.
It struck me at this early age, that none of the other kids liked or wanted to open the batting. Eagerly I would put my hand up, as my thoughts were that I didn’t want to miss out on a bat (due to the fact my older brothers would always make me bat last). I would happily open the batting knowing that I would never miss out, compared to batting lower down the order and possibly missing out if the top order stayed in. At the age of 45, I’m still opening the batting and funnily enough, it’s because no one still wants to open, and I still don’t want to miss out!
In the early 1990’s I changed high schools and went to a boarding school, at Assumption College Kilmore (ACK). It was here, that I found out that one of the elder Marist Brothers handmade his own cricket bats and auctioned them off for the school (In the early 90’s they were selling for $400! – my jaw dropped). I fell in love with the idea that cricket bats could be handmade in Australia, and that it’s just not the English who can produce bats!
Unfortunately, like a lot of young cricketers, I left the game in my late teens early 20’s to have fun being a young adult. I didn’t manage to reconnect with cricket until my mid 30’s when I moved to the Northern Beaches of Sydney and joined the local Cromer Cricket Club, which I’m still proudly playing with today in the same team – Cromer Legends!
Playing cricket within your community is certainly what cricket is all about and now I get to provide something back. Not only do I individually handcraft cricket bats with traditional tools, I can also provide bat advice to other local teams that we play against and offer repair and maintenance service to keep whatever bat they choose to use in great shape for the season and seasons to come.
Making cricket bats has been the easy part, it’s the branding, marketing and sourcing affordable materials which has been the hard yards. But I’m on my way and hope you can follow my journey. I get that not everyone likes cricket, but if you know someone who does, or someone who is interested in handcrafted cricket bats from a willow industry grown here in Australia and made with passion by me in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, then please spread the word about ‘ TEMPUS CRICKET’
Most handcrafted bats are labelled ‘Bespoke’, but I consider my craftmanship as ‘Artisan’.
And that’s why it is ‘Time’ for me to release my passion as a qualified cricket bat maker and to kick start my own cricket bat range – Tempus Cricket!