Customer review for Stiga Clipper CR WRB

External Review for Stiga Clipper CR WRB on August 28, 2011

Bought this ply a couple of years ago, and sold it off after 3 months of use!

My coach still uses it. He swears by Clipper CR, but his version is CR, not the CR WRB, and that is where the differences happened.

What I write here is entirely my own opinion, and may be disputed, since there are so many fans of Stiga Clipper CR all over the world. But my observations are:

- This is a 7 ply, hardened wood blade, almost as hard as a soft carbon ply.

- The blade is thick, so thick that with two "max" sponge rubbers, it is difficult to fit into my slim wooden case.

- The face is big, adding to the sweet spot of the bat.

Considering the above three, the bat is heavy. There shouldn't be any dispute on this.

Now, with the WRB handle, this has become even more heavier in the head. As a result, I lost on the control, BIG time!

I use moderately fast, spinny rubbers (had Mark V on FH and Sriver EL on my BH), and the bat became heavy, too speedy, almost spinless on close to the table shots, and the only thing that worked from close to the table was the pushes. It was a harrowing experience! It may be my technique (playing for the last 24 years), or my playing style (close to the table attack with loops, side-spins, pushes and occassional smashes), but the end result was too bad for me.

On the other hand, while playing from mid-distance with the same set of rubbers, it was pretty much explosive because I could take advantage of the high throw angle of the blade and smash mercilessly! But that is just not my game!

The older Stiga Clipper CR is a much better play, in my opinion, because it distributes the weight of the bat a lot more evenly (I can say this because I played with my coach's bat with the same set of rubbers and it gives much better result), but overall, Stiga Clipper CR WRB was a disappointment for me for my playing style.

I would recommend it to mid-distance players, who loves to smash it hard, maybe.

For close to the table players, who enjoys side-spins, underspins and quick loopy top-spins, it probably will be best to stay away from this blade.

I do not use Super Anti or other slow rubbers, so won't be able to tell you if that would suit anyone.

Interestingly, a few months ago I had an opponent in a tournament using the same ply. I decided to take my chances based on my experience with that ply (I was playing with my Donic Waldner Senso Carbon with Tobhar Genius+ on FH and Tenergy 25 on BH) and started playing all my shots short and low. The poor guy just had no other option but to try to chop it, which came to me high enough to kill with a smash. Later on, we had a chat over a couple of beers and he confirmed that he was a mid distance "hitter" and the bat was really good for that. He said he was not prepared to handle "touch shots" at close to the net, and the bat felt "dull" in his hand when he tried to return my shots.

Practice issue? Maybe. But how come two different players who play under different coaches, plays different styles have the exact same opinion about the same blade??

You take your decision!

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