Post-war — Gray-Nicolls, GM, SS
The 1940 merger of H. Gray & Sons with L.J. Nicolls of Robertsbridge created the Sussex workshop that would dominate the next 50 years. Meanwhile, in newly independent India and Pakistan, Meerut and Sialkot rebuilt the subcontinental bat industry from scratch.
The birth of Gray-Nicolls (1940)
In 1940, Henry Gray's Cambridge workshop merged with L.J. Nicolls of Robertsbridge in East Sussex to form Gray-Nicolls. The Sussex factory pressed every bat in-house and became, through the 1950s and 1960s, the standard against which other English makers measured themselves. Garfield Sobers, Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter all carried Gray-Nicolls in Test matches.
Gunn & Moore continued in Nottingham and Stuart Surridge in Essex, but the centre of gravity in English bat-making had moved firmly to the south coast.
Meerut, Sialkot and the subcontinental industry
Partition in 1947 split the historic willow and equipment manufacturing belt across two new countries. SG (Sanspareils Greenlands) relocated from Sialkot to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and became the cornerstone of the Indian industry. In Sialkot, CA Sports (founded 1955) and a generation of family workshops rebuilt the Pakistani side.
SS / Sareen Sports followed in 1969, opening in Meerut and quickly becoming the bat of choice for Indian Test players. Sunil Gavaskar would carry SS through the 1970s and 1980s, and the SS "Sunny Tonny" — built to his specifications — became one of the defining Indian profiles of the era.
The bats of the era
Pre-Scoop bats were still relatively thin by modern standards — typically 2lb 4oz to 2lb 8oz, with a flat back and a small round-shouldered swell. The pitches were uncovered, the balls seamed more, and run-scoring was a craft of placement rather than power.
That was about to change. In 1974, in a workshop in Robertsbridge, a Gray-Nicolls bat-maker would scoop out the back of a blade and rewrite the rules.