I bought this bat Kookaburra blade 250 from a local shop 8/9 days before Christmas last year 2009. Bat has 9 decent wonky grains but decent willow for Grade 3, weight is 2.8lb and light balanced pick up and when i tested the ping at the shop with a mallet it sounded [banned word] and I liked the big shape and feel that's why I only bought it for net practice but the bat has turned to be really good so I will use it in nets & matches. The only negative is it has 3 tiny knots just below the bird on the front sticker but I feel they wont make much difference to the performance to the bat.