use of heavy bails

[budster]

hi folks

i know that if umpires consider that they need to dispense with bails they should do so both ends. what about heavy bails if the bails are required one end should they be used both ends? i cant find anything about this in the laws or Tom Smith

[gooders]

Not only is there no reference in Tom Smiths, there is nothing specific in the laws either.
Let's be honest, umpires usually have their own set of bails which they will use at the end which they stand, but do both umpires bails have the same pattern? Face it, do heavy bails make that much difference when the wicket is put down by the ball. They are used usually when standard weight bails keep falling off. My question would be: Why not use heavy bails as the norm?
I would welcome comments from other colleagues to see what they think.

[jaybee]

Given the state of bails which the average club has, Gooders is right - there's often a mismatch.
While it might be desirable to use heavy (or normal) bails at both ends I can see no harm in a mismatch, provided that each pair conforms to the Laws.

Moreover if I provide a pair of heavy bails I wouldn't normally expect to do so for the other end as well - that's the easy way to lose them!

[budster]

i wonder what you would do? heavies at both ends or at one end only?

i would not use heavy bails as standard. it seems to me that heavies are harder to dislodge than normal bails and i think it is hard enough for the fielding side to take wickets without the (small) additional difficulty caused by making it harder to dislodge the bails.

as for bails themselves, i also find clubs have a strange collection of non conforming bails (where do they get them from?) and faced with this i use my own. my colleague the other end can do whatever he/she thinks fit but like jaybee i wont share mine

[igmc]

Agree entirely with the comments made above.

One extra point -I will not use the very heavy lignum vitae bails as I think they vastly increase the likelihood of Downton/Boucher type injuries. I certainly would not like to be hit by one of those.

Also one anecdote. I turned down a caught-behind appeal as I had seen the ball hit the outside of the off stump, which deflected considerably from the vertical without the bail coming off. At the end of the over I went up the other end as I was puzzled how it had stayed on. It had the longest long spigot I have ever seen. The bail had been provided by my colleague. Who happened to be the batsman's father!

[sillypoint]

I have two comments on this:

1. There is a worldwide bail manufacturing conspiracy to never make two bails the same, as can be seen from the collection most clubs have!

2. More seriously, the best solution on windy days is to make sure the stumps are firm and rigid. This much more than the bails themselves will prevent bails from falling, as each stump catches vastly more wind than a bail and if a stump wobbles in the wind the bails will probably fall; on the other hand if the stumps are firm the bails can withstand a great deal of wind without falling.

[jaybee]

Not a silly point, but a very good one - and something well worth noting!

It makes life much easier if the stump holes have been properly watered, though the weather gods overdid it last year.

[missingleg]

I find that the depth of the stumps' grooves are much more significant than the weight of the bails, and have sometimes swapped the position of the stumps or asked for new stumps before the game.

I carry heavy bails and once they were useful when windy, but more often they would blow off too!

As was mentioned earlier, if they're too heavy it can lead to more serious injuries.