Posted by We may or may not have caught up with Mark Wood to talk about his interest in wood.
It’s a little known fact that England fast bowler Mark Wood is in fact called Mark Rudd. Team-mates began calling him Wood near the start of his career in mocking acknowledgement of his irrepressible enthusiasm for timber.
Everyone gets nicknames, but this one stuck to the extent many people now think it’s his real name – much as they did with Jack (Robert) Russell and Matthew Bloody-Hayden (whose last name was in fact just plain old Hayden).
We popped round to Wood’s gaff to find out a little more about this lifelong interest of his.
King Cricket: So, Woody – or should we call you Ruddy? – let’s start with the obvious question. What’s your favourite wood?
Wood: Well I’m very partial to drift and obviously fire as well, but, as with all the most obvious questions, there’s an equally obvious answer, which is of course South American Ziricote. I think the Argentinian in particular is basically unbeatable with that beautiful variegated grain structure.
Ziricote is apparently fairly easy to work with, despite its high density
KC: What do they use that for? Stumps?
Wood: Ha! Good one!
KC: [Looks utterly perplexed]
Wood: Nah, it’s a serious hardwood, Ziricote. I mean we’re not talking Australian Buloke here [laughs] but in terms of its modulus of rupture, you’re still talking 110 megapascals – maybe 115. And crushing strength: 60-odd megapascals, I think. But don’t quote me on that.
KC: Right…
Wood: It’s a chocolate brown colour with a diffuse-porous endgrain. Great for furniture, musical instruments, stuff like that. It’s often used for guitars.
KC: But not stumps.
Wood: Ha ha ha! No, not stumps. They tend to stick with plain old European Ash for that – although they should probably use something offering a few more megapascals when I’m tearing in off my long run, hey?
KC: Damn straight. What about bats? Where do you stand on willow?
Wood: Well, not in the middle given its modulus of elasticity! [Laughs] No, seriously, I’m an English Willow man, obviously. You won’t see many England players using Kashmir to be honest.
KC: And is it a wood that you like?
Wood: You know what? I don’t really have strong feelings about it. It’s ideal for bats – does its job perfectly – but it doesn’t have massively wide use beyond that, so it’s not one I can get really worked up about, even though it’s really quite a major part of my professional life. I suppose in many respects my job’s about trying to avoid contact with it.
KC: Yeah, I guess. Which woods do float your boat, then? Ziggurat, you’ve already mentioned. Any others?
Wood: [Laughing] Ziricote! Man, you crack me up. Well, I like mucking about making bits of furniture, so anything suitable for that. Oak, Ash, Maple – Cherrywood’s lovely.
Mark Wood’s Top 3 Woods
(1) Ziricote
“That diffuse-porous endgrain is simply unmatched.”
(2) Zebrano
“Goes without saying that this hinges on it being quartersawn to ensure the alternating colour pattern.”
(3) Scots Pine
“Don’t knock it. Where would we be in this world without pine? And this one – the UK’s only native pine – is a beaut.”
KC: What kinds of things do you make then?
Wood: Look, cricket’s my job. I only dabble. End tables, wardrobes, colonial style chairs.
KC: Sounds like more than dabbling.
Wood: Well I’m kind of ‘between workshops’ at the minute, so I’m not really doing anything much at all. I’ve had the old one turned into a gym for rehab and as you can see the new one’s not finished yet.
KC: It’s pretty big. And I can’t say I even recognise some of these tools.
Wood: That’s a chisel, mate.
KC: Wild.
Wood: And that one’s a saw.
KC: I know what a saw is.
Wood: A coping saw… no jokes please. That one next to it’s a Japanese Ryoba saw. Bit of an indulgence that one, but it’s very cool. Come over here – let me show you my plunge router.
KC: Mmm.
Wood: My new turret lathe’s due any day now. Shame I can’t show you that. It was one of the main reasons for moving the ‘shop into this bigger building.
KC: Strikes me you must be on your own a bit with this? There can’t be many cricketers happy to talk wood and carpentry with you?
Wood: Oh, you’d be surprised. There’s a few of us. Josh Hazlewood’s really keen and Travis Head’s a wizard with veneers. Shubman Gill can do a tidy dovetail joint and I hear that Tony de Zorzi is a real enthusiast, so I’m looking forward to playing the Saffers again. Hopefully I can have a word with him then.
KC: Man, I never knew. Who’s the best then?
Wood: Well it’s not about ‘best’ is it? It’s craftsmanship. It’s all about sharing knowledge and learning. And even if it were, none of us stand a chance against the grandaddy of them all, the greatest Test-cricketer-cum-carpenter of them all. Even you must know who that was.
KC: Andy Caddick?
Wood: [Looks disgusted.] Dear Lord, no. I can’t believe you don’t know this. It was Xenophon Balaskas.
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Intriguing piece, KC, but I think we need some expert opinion here.
My mate, John-Boy, used to run the Timber Trade Federation. I’ll send him a link to this piece and then, who knows, he might just be bothered to comment.
John-Boy and family were the subject of one of my “lost masterpieces of 2007”, back when he was in timber and we had superb family outings for T20 matches. This old report from MTWD is not KC compliant , but has KC characteristics, including a mention of the Tour De France in a cricket match report.
https://ianlouisharris.com/2007/07/06/middlesex-v-essex-t20-ravaged-by-ravi-a-2007-mtwd-lost-masterpiece-6-july-2007/
John-Boy self-confessedly knows more about timber than he does about cricket.
Ah, I got a pretty speedy reply to my shout-out. John-Boy opines…or should I say, oh pines:
“I loved the KC interview. Factually all accurate, although I had to look up the woods quoted. Don’t get a lot of that sort of stuff over here. I’d look up the import stats if I could be bothered but I think Mr Wood or whatever he’s called, probably has bought the Nation’s entire share. Funnily Mr Derek Underwood’s name arose in a conversation I was having yesterday.”
…which got me thinking…can I muster a nominally determinative timber loving England XI?
Barry Wood
Harry Charlwood
Andrew Greenwood
Paul Collingwood
Bill Lockwood
Sammy Woods (an allrounder who batted & bowled for both sides: England & Aus)
Arthur Wood (wkt)
Chris Silverwood
Mark Wood
Derek Underwood
Luke Wood
Bit stronger on bowling than batting, but what do you expect if you let Mark Wood loose on the selection criteria…or do I mean criterion?
Next week: Phil’s favourite mustard.
Nice XI, but might there be a space for Jack Willow? not over the hill at 45 surely, and with an average of 3 and a catch across all formats… https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/jack-willow-23475
Or indeed the splendidly-named Selby Attree Horne Ash (a tree! geddit?), with runs and a wicket for Cambridge Uni in the 1850s: https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/selby-ash-8891
No England ‘Oak’ however, but there are 4 Indian players e.g. Aniruddha https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/aniruddha-oak-32095
Surely a Hollioake gives you two trees for the price of one.
Peter Treego
Kyle Log
Stuart Board
I’m quite tired.
Ash Gardner
Terry Alder Man
Holly Colvin
Douglas Firdine
Box
None of you selected Ash-tree Giles? Shame on you all.
Enough of these play on woods.
Currently watching the Pakistan vs West Indies game, and all I can say is…
SAJID!
My apologies for the outburst, but he is doing rather well at the moment, but we knew that was going to happen.
Freeview on youtube via Sports Central if interested.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE to advertisers: I have just bought a copy of Don Bradman Cricket 14, mainly on the strength of this review: https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/don-bradman-cricket-14-review-xbox-360-and-ps3/2014/05/11/
Advertising here works. Very slowly. Why not throw a load of money at King Cricket? In a decade’s time you might see a small uptick in sales. Yes, it’s possible that after that period of time the sales might be second-hand, but surely that’s nothing to worry about? I bet loads of people are buying Ziricote products in 2035 and 2036 off the back of Mark Wood’s (fictional) recommendation, do you want to miss out on that?
He’s right, you know, Mr and Mrs Marketing. Guaranteed ROI.
We’re also entirely open to advertising 10 year old games if you don’t want to advertise a new one and then wait 10 years.
At the U19 World Cup, USA absolutely thrashed an Ireland side containing the experienced senior international Freya Sargent, racing to their target with over half the balls remaining and only one wicket down. Given the size of their player base and number of academies they have over there, that might not be such a big surprise, but it’s a shame they haven’t managed to translate that into a seriously competitive senior side. https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-women-s-under-19-t20-world-cup-2024-25-1447902/ireland-women-under-19s-vs-united-states-of-america-women-under-19s-10th-match-group-b-1447912/full-scorecard
For a genuine shock, Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs in their first U19 WC appearance. It was a low scoring affair shortened by rain to 13 overs per side, where Lucky Piety was awarded player of the match for scoring 19 off 25 with only one boundary and a lot of running – Anika Todd of NZ tied her score but at a lower strike rate. Bizarrely both sides also had one player score 18 so the two innings had the same top two scores. For Nigeria, openers Victory Igbinedion and Peculiar Agboya made just 4 runs between them, while number six Annointed Akhigbe – whose vital 3/2 to clean up the tail in their 1 wicket qualifying win over Zimbabwe played a big part getting them to the tournament – was out for a duck. But Piety’s 19 together with Lillian Udeh’s 18 and wicket-keeper Omosigho Eguakun’s unbeaten 9 off 4 balls (in which time she hit 2 fours, as many as the rest of the team put together, though Udeh also hit a six) put just enough runs on the board. It’s a shame their match against Samoa was abandoned without a ball bowled, as they’d have expected to win against them too – Samoa were bowled out for 16 in their next match against South Africa. https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-women-s-under-19-t20-world-cup-2024-25-1447902/new-zealand-women-under-19s-vs-nigeria-women-under-19s-11th-match-group-c-1447913/full-scorecard