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.
Please back King Cricket via our Patreon campaign because clearly no-one else would publish features like this. Put simply: the more funding we get, the more time we can spend on the site.
Our publishing schedule is a little erratic, so sign up for the email if you want to know when there’s something new.
