I only ever owned 2 bats after graduating from $39.95 kashmir willow status when I was 13....one was a Gray Nicholls, which gave me pretty good service, and the other (buy far the most expensive) was GM.....I really liked the bat, and played some good innings with it, but the f*ckin thing kept breaking, and eventually I spent most of my last year or so of cricket just borrowing bats...so I would have to vote for Gray Nicholls on that basis.