Salix, CA, Chase and Newbery Cricket Bats Compared

Salix, CA, Chase and Newbery are the four brands club players ask us about most after the big three, and they are four very different businesses. Two are tiny English workshops, one is a Hampshire maker that was bought by its own willow grower last year, and one is a Pakistani factory that has been making bats since 1958. This comparison covers who each of them is, where and how the bats are made, what they cost in our range, and which kind of player each suits.

Who They Are

Salix is Andrew Kember's workshop at Langley, near Maidstone in Kent. The Salix Cricket Bat Company was incorporated in February 1990 and has stayed small by design: every bat is made by hand, and Kember has described a couple of thousand bats a year, juniors included, as a good year. Kember trained under John Newbery, which puts Salix in a direct line from the Sussex bat-making tradition.

CA Sports was founded in Sialkot, Pakistan, in 1958 by Charaghdin Abdulrasheed and is credited with producing the first curved-blade bats in 1979. It is a large factory maker with a long list of international players, and it sells English willow bats as well as Kashmir ones. Our CA cricket bats guide explains its Pro and Gold ranges.

Chase was founded in 1996 in the Hampshire countryside and makes its bats by hand from the cleft at Dummer Down Farm. Dan and Julie Swaine bought the company from the former England batter Robin Smith in 2007, and in November 2025 it was acquired by the willow grower Rory Waterer, with Dan Swaine staying on as master bat maker and managing director. A bat maker owned by its own grower is unusual, and it is the clearest answer any brand has to the willow price rises of the last few years. Our Chase cricket bats guide covers its profiles and grades.

Newbery began in the early 1900s in East Sussex with Len Newbery. His son John founded the present company in 1981 and is credited with developing the steel spring handle. Newbery is now based in West Sussex, makes its bats by hand in the UK, and supplies the England and Wales Cricket Board across the professional game. Our Newbery cricket bats guide covers the Kudos, Pulse and Master 100.

Where and How the Bats Are Made

Hand-made and factory-made are not quality grades. What hand-making buys is individual pressing and shaping: Newbery describe judging each cleft and giving it a different amount of pressure, and a Salix or Chase bat has had one person's hands on it from cleft to sticker. What factory-making buys is price and depth of range. CA's cheapest senior bat in our stock is £104.99, which is the cheapest senior English willow we sell from any brand.

What They Cost With Us

Our stock on 14 October 2026.

Chase is the one of the four with a serious junior range, fourteen bats including a full Harrow set. Its four profiles, A-10, Vortex, F-16 and Volante, each come in Select, Player and Elite grades at the same three prices, which makes it the easiest brand in the shop to compare within. Salix is the opposite: three senior bats, no juniors, and a price that starts where most brands' mid-range ends.

Which Suits Which Player

• Salix for the player who wants a single hand-made bat chosen for pick-up and does not need a range of grades to choose from. You are buying one maker's judgement of one cleft.
• CA for the budget-conscious senior and for anyone who wants the subcontinental profile tradition, with more wood lower in the blade, at a factory price.
• Chase for juniors moving up through the sizes and for club players who like a clear grade ladder within one profile. Its grower ownership also makes it the brand least exposed to willow supply.
• Newbery for the player who wants English hand-making with professional-level backing, and for anyone who values the repair and refurbishment service the firm runs alongside its bats.

None of them is a reason to skip the pick-up test. A Salix at £400 that picks up badly for you is a worse buy than a CA at £200 that does not. Our cricket bat buying guide sets the order of decisions and our brand comparison puts all fifteen of our brands side by side.

Why the Small English Makers Matter

Reporting in April 2026 counted around twenty traditional English willow bat makers left in Britain. Salix, Chase and Newbery are three of them, and the MCC's decision to allow laminated bats in open-age cricket from October 2026 was taken in part because top-grade English willow has roughly doubled in price in a decade. For a buyer that cuts two ways. A hand-made single-cleft bat from a small English maker is becoming the premium product it always claimed to be, and the grower-owned model Chase has adopted may be how the others survive the next decade. Our willow guide covers the supply question.

Browse the four here: Salix, CA, Chase and Newbery.

FAQs

Are Salix cricket bats good? They are hand-made in Kent by a maker trained in the Newbery line, in small numbers, and priced accordingly. Whether a given one is good for you is a pick-up question, as with any bat.

Where are CA cricket bats made? Sialkot, Pakistan, where the company was founded in 1958.

Where are Chase cricket bats made? By hand at Dummer Down Farm in Hampshire. Since November 2025 the company has been owned by the willow grower Rory Waterer, with the same master bat maker.

Where are Newbery cricket bats made? By hand in the UK; the company is based in West Sussex and has Sussex roots going back to the early 1900s.

Who uses Chase and Newbery bats? Both have professional users; Newbery supplies the ECB across the professional game. We do not list named players because sponsorships change every season.

Sources

Salix's workshop is described by Wisden, with incorporation details from Companies House. Chase's history and 2025 acquisition are reported by The Manufacturer, 11 March 2026. Newbery's history and pressing are from Newbery. CA's founding is as reported by The Express Tribune and Dawn in 2015. Stock figures are ours on 14 October 2026.