Fielke Cricket Bats – South Australian owned

Fielke Cricket Bats has a rich history dating back to over 100 years and remains the only South Australian based cricket bat manufacturing setup, now run solely by Robert “Bob” Fielke (pronounced: Fill-key).

I attended a presentation of Bob Fielke’s setup out in Gawler, regional South Australia. At this presentation Bob gave a look into the history of the cricket bat, a thorough breakdown of the Fielke company’s history in Australia, and lastly showed us how he has fine crafted his bat making skills to keep the family business on the go from his small workshop.

The company is best seen as a small-privately owned cricket bat specialist company. Bob now does everything on his own, using his own skills and expertise. He has a definite sense of pride and passion for the Fielke brand and gets a real buzz when discussing the history of the cricket bat, knowing his family is connected to it in some way.

He has a showroom where not only does he display some of his most recent, modern cricket bats manufactured in his back garden (literally) but he has also collected a variety of bats dating back to the early-to-mid 1900s, when the business was initially operating under Kumnick Bats in Lobethal, South Australia.

Bob’s son, Noel Fielke, played state cricket for South Australia. He is featured in a team photo on the wall, celebrating a centenary of Sheffield Shield Cricket in a match between South Australia and New South Wales (1992). Another photo of Noel shows him batting that same season, the caption text highlighting how he established a new South Australian Cricket Association record by scoring 1,102 runs in a season for Salisbury District Cricket Club. The family even features in the history books on the cricket field.  

Alongside cricket bat manufacturing and refurbishing, Bob has manufactured all sorts of merchandise and household novelties; my best one being a full length bat that can hold wine glasses or a bunch of pints. He has also impressively taken the time to produce replica bats to demonstrate how they evolved throughout the known history of the game.

Each of the historic bats Bob pulls out has a story of its origins and intended purpose as to how the game

The history display at the Fielke showroom.

was at that estimated period in time. It’s intriguing to be reminded every now and then how this great game of ours came to be. Some of these replica bats of his can be found at the Adelaide Oval Museum, although these are probably stashed away as the ground is well into redevelopment.

The history behind Fielke bats dates back to 1894 when the company was founded by Mr. Ewald Kumnick, who was from a family of German descent, as is the Fielke family. He began manufacturing cricket bats in Lobethal, South Australia, with the factory being based in an old church. Much experimentation with a variety of timber was done until English Willow became the standard timber used and Kumnick bats gradually founded a strong reputation as good quality cricket bats.

In the 1900s before the Second World War, the infamous company Spalding approached Kumnick to manufacture cricket bats for them to their then known and well regarded standards, but Spalding wanted their branding to appear on the bat. The agreement was made and with an initial work force of sixteen employees, Kumnick grew and was able to churn out approximately 10,000 to 15,000 bats a year. This was unfortunately brought to an end when the Second World War erupted. Ships were no longer coming to Australian shores with the timber needed for the bats and, as a result, the working relationship with Spalding came to an end and never renewed after the War.

The statistics wrap for the Australian summer

With the end of the summer for the Australian Cricket Team it is time for the statistics wrap across the formats.
However, State Cricket continues for a little while with the Ryobi Cup and Sheffield Shield Trophies needing to be claimed, as well as The Southern Stars who have secured a place in the ICC Women's World Cup Final. Unfortunately the ladies lost their final Super Six game to the West Indian Women's Team by 8 runs, however they are still very close to the trophy!

Our Test players are currently in India ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series and the two-day warm-up game ended with fair results.

Ed Cowan scored 58 runs and it appears as a stand out performance against the rest of the batsmen.
A high chance this will ensure the Warner/Cowan duo continues and Shane Watson may find himself in the middle order, with Phillip Hughes and Michael Clarke nestled at three and four. This then leaves room for the "all-rounder" position or an additional spinner.

The bowling front was the area of confidence as our front-line spinner Nathan Lyon took 3-69, while Moises Henriques took a cracking 4-12. The contest for that all-rounder spot - if available based upon condition analysis prior to the 1st Test in Chennai - is definitely on and Moises pushed his case with the ball in hand.


As mentioned on Facebook, at the conclusion of the ODI series against the West Indies, it has been a mixed summer.

We lost our stronghold in a 3-match Test series against The Proteas who ended up taking their opportunity at the WACA to beat us 1-0. It was an unfortunate case of an emerging side being unable to grab their chances at the Gabba and more specifically Adelaide, where our bowlers just couldn't get those wickets needed on the final days play.

The Test series against Sri Lanka was a case of redemption for the team and the supporters as we convincingly knocked them over. It put a lot into perspective ahead of the soon to be contested Border-Gavaskar series.

The Sri Lankan's fought back in the ODI series but we were able to claw our way back in but they never looked to be too dominant, as was the case in the T20s which they were able to keep that step ahead of us.

The West Indies suffered another 5-0 defeat against us as it was a few summers ago, which was disappointing after the good clash we had against them during our last tour to the Caribbean in the ODIs.

As written before I do believe that the days of the 5 match ODI series should be put to rest and audiences should be treated to odd number encounters of 3 ODIs and 3 T20s, or 3 ODIs and 2 T20s.

All in all, although there was heavy tension regarding Player Rotation and frustration with supporters being unable to find a connection to the changing side and understand what the selection motives were, the results reflect that of a side that is taking shape in a decent enough manner given the playing pool is not overflowing with talented players as it was a few years back. There is still healthy competition though for places, better than nothing.

The Ashes is getting closer day by day and the Border-Gavaskar series should not be overlooked.
As every player will state who has been to India, it is a tough place to play competitive Test cricket and if the crop of players we have needed to test their mental and physical game this is it!

Great preparations for a side to toughen up ahead of our quest to get back that urn!

Please don't forget that fresh content will lessen right here at The Baggy Green Blog due to personal circumstances, but the good news is that the Facebook and Twitter pages will always get regular content and opinions delivered, as well as discussion via my Twitter account.

Australia's format summary:

- Test matches: Played 6, Won 3, Lost 1, Drew 2.
- ODI matches: Played 10, Won 7, Lost 2, No result 1.
- T20 matches: Played 3, Won , Lost .

Test Match Batting Statistics (Top stats only for all categories):

- Michael Clarke: 6 matches, 10 innings, HS 259*, 892 runs, 111.50 average, x3 50s, x3 100s.
- Michael Hussey: 6 matches, 10 innings, HS 115*, 527 runs, 75.28 average, x1 50s, x3 100s.
- David Warner: 6 matches, 10 innings,  HS 119, 478 runs, 47.80 average, x4 50s, x1 100s.
- Ed Cowan: 6 matches, 10 innings, HS 136, 364 runs, 36.40 average, x2 50s, x1 100s.
- Matthew Wade: 6 matches, 10 innings, HS 102*, 312 runs, 44.57 average, x2 50s, x1 100s.
- Phillip Hughes: 3 matches, 5 innings, HS 87, 233 runs, 46.60 average, x2 50s, x0 100s.
- Shane Watson: 3 matches, 5 innings, HS 83, 153 runs, 30.60 average, x1 50s, x0 100s.
- Mitchell Johnson: 3 matches, 5 innings, HS 92*, 116 runs, 38.66 average, x1 50s, x0 100s.
- Mitchell Starc: 3 matches, 4 innings, HS 68*, 75 runs, 37.50 average, x1 50s, x0 100s.
- James Pattinson: 2 matches, 2 innings, HS 42, 71 runs, 71.00 average, x0 50s, x0 100s.

Test Match Bowling Statistics:

- Peter Siddle: 5 matches, 24 wickets, 596 runs, 5/54 BBI, 9/104 BBM, 24.83 Average, x1 5WI.
- Nathan Lyon: 6 matches, 19 wickets, 793 runs, 3/41 BBI, 5/140 BBM, 41.73 Average.
- Mitchell Starc: 3 matches, 18 wickets, 496 runs, 6/154 BBI, 8/209 BBM, 27.55 Average, x2 5WI.
- Mitchell Johnson: 3 matches, 15 wickets, 335 runs, 4/63 BBI, 6/79 BBM, 22.33 Average.
- Jackson Bird: 2 matches, 11 wickets, 178 runs, 4/41 BBI, 7/117 BBM, 16.18 Average.
- Ben Hilfenhaus: 3 matches, 7 wickets, 243 runs, 3/49 BBI, 4/114 BBM, 34.71 Average.
- James Pattinson: 2 matches, 5 wickets, 192 runs, 3/93 BBI, 5/151 BBM, 38.40 Average.

ODI Batting Statistics:

- Phillip Hughes: 10 matches, 9 innings, 416 runs, HS 138*, 52.00 average, x2 100s, x1 50.
- George Bailey: 8 matches, 7 innings, 323 runs, HS 125*, 53.83 average, x1 100, x1 50.
- Shane Watson: 3 matches, 3 innings, 198 runs, HS 122, 66.00 average, x1 100, x1 50.
- Adam Voges: 2 matches, 2 innings, 140 runs, HS 112*, 140.00 average, x1 100.
- David Hussey: 5 matches, 5 innings, 128 runs, HS 60*, 32.00 average, x1 50.
- Aaron Finch: 7 matches, 7 innings, 105 runs, HS 38, 15.00 average.
- Brad Haddin: 3 matches, 3 innings, 103 runs, HS 50, 51.50 average, x1 50.
- Michael Clarke: 6 matches, 5 innings, 97 runs, HS 37, 19.40 average.
- Matthew Wade: 7 matches, 6 innings, 95 runs, HS 31, 23.75 average.
- Glenn Maxwell: 7 matches, 7 innings, 78 runs, HS 51*, 15.60 average, x1 50.
- Mitchell Starc: 7 matches, 2 innings, 74 runs, HS 52*, --.-- average, x1 50.

ODI Bowling Statistics:

- Clint McKay:  10 matches,  17 wickets, 368 runs, 4/33 BBI, 21.64 Average.
- Mitchell Starc: 7 matches,  14 wickets, 201 runs, 5/20 BBI, 14.35 Average.
- Mitchell Johnson: 9 matches, 14 wickets, 291 runs, 3/11 BBI, 20.78 Average.
- James Faulkner: 5 matches, 8 wickets, 211 runs, 4/48 BBI, 26.37 Average.
- Glenn Maxwell:  7 matches, 6 wickets, 194 runs, 4/63 BBI, 32.33 Average.
- Ben Cutting: 3 matches, 5 wickets, 140 runs, 3/45 BBI, 28.00 Average.
- Xavier Doherty: 6 matches, 4 wickets, 142 runs, 3/21 BBI, 35.50 Average.
- Moises Henriques: 3 matches, 3 wickets, 39 runs, 3/32 BBI, 13.00 Average.

T20 Batting Statistics: View statistics via Cricinfo.com.

T20 Bowling Statistics: View statistics via Cricinfo.com.

Fun statistic as posted to The Baggy Green Blog's Social Media sites:

"Been reading some statistics and noticed Michael Clarke (6,989) is just 7 runs behind what Donald Bradman scored in his career (6,996). 

The amount of cricket shows and also highlights the excellence of Bradman as a run-scoring machine. 

Clarkey has had 148 innings and counting, while The Don had 80 when his career came to an end with that ever-awesome average of 99.94.

When Clarkey gets those 7 runs it will put him in the Top 10 Run Scorers of all time for The Baggy Greens."

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