It’s taken over two years to get to this point but finally, the Eastfield Offensive Professional Table Tennis Bat is on sale worldwide! Here’s my full review of the bat, including its strengths/weaknesses and which types of player it’s suited to.
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Full disclosure – this is the bat I currently play with and Eastfield is the table tennis brand I co-own with Sam Priestley. But having spent so much time working on it, I feel like an Eastfield Offensive expert right now!
Eastfield Offensive Review
The Eastfield Offensive Professional Table Tennis Bat is the second racket produced by British brand Eastfield. It follows the success of the Eastfield Allround Bat that was released in 2016.
Whilst the Allround Bat was squarely aimed at the new table tennis player, the Offensive Bat is targetted at those with good basic technique looking to take their game to the next level.
It’s another custom-racket, made up of a professional quality table tennis blade and two sheets of high-performance rubber. In this case, the blade is the Eastfield Ashwood and the rubbers are Eastfield A-Pro.
The Blade
The Eastfield Ashwood 7-ply blade offers exceptional feeling and feedback. It’s called ‘Ashwood’ because ash is the hardwood that makes up the outer layer of the blade.
It’s a 7-ply all-wood blade without any carbon layers. This makes it fast but not crazy fast. You can go for big loops without the fear of blasting everything off the end of the table!
And using all-wood blades is a great way to improve your overall feeling and control of the ball – something that can be hard to develop with super-fast carbon blades.
If you’re looking to buy an absolute rocket of a blade then the Eastfield Ashwood probably isn’t for you. But if you want a fast blade that will work for the majority of intermediate and advanced attacking players, then this could be perfect!
It also has a very comfortable rounded flared handle. It feels great in my hand and allows me to hold it very loosely – which is good for my relaxed shakehands grip.
If you like, you can buy an Eastfield Ashwood blade on its own for £50 ($60).
The Rubbers
The ITTF approved Eastfield A-Pro 2.1mm rubbers provide fantastic speed, spin, and control.
A-Pro is a European-style new generation rubber with a medium-hard black sponge. It’s fast, but not too fast. It can generate huge amounts of spin, without being too sensitive to incoming spins.
Overall, it was designed to be as fast and spinny as possible whilst still maintaining lots of control – to help you keep your shots on the table.
Aimed at the attacking/offensive player, this rubber is great for looping, blocking, and pushing. It has a medium throw angle, making it suitable for attacking both from mid-distance and far from the table. And it is very easy to block with!
The sponge is quite heavy and dense (rather than light and airy). That gives this rubber a very solid feel, which I like. The weight also helps to add some extra power to your shots.
The rubbers sell individually for £40 ($50) per sheet.
Finishing Touches
The Eastfield Offensive comes in a lovely matte black box with silver foiling. I’ve kept mine in its box for months now and the box is still in good condition (as is the bat, I might add).
Or, if you prefer, you can choose to buy an Eastfield Original Bat Case to keep your new racket in. They come in three colour options (black, grey, or navy) and there’s the option to get a single or double bat case.
Finally, the Eastfield Offensive comes finished with new Eastfield high-quality black edge tape. This protects the edge of your bat from bumps and scrapes and helps to stop damage occurring to the edges of your rubbers during play or storage.
It’s a very good-looking bat. Obviously, the performance of the racket is most important, but we also spent a lot of time working on the design elements too.
Who Should Buy One?
Firstly, I need to highlight the weight of the bat. My Eastfield Offensive weighs in at just over 195g. That makes it fairly heavy (as far as table tennis bats go). As a 29-year-old man, I like the added weight. It helps me to generate some solid power on my loops. But if you are a 12-year-old, for example, you might prefer a lighter racket.
Secondly, let’s talk about your level. If you are a complete newbie to table tennis, the Eastfield Offensive probably isn’t for you. You’ll find it a little bit too fast. Try the Eastfield Allround instead, which is quite a bit slower but still has excellent spin capabilities.
If you’ve already been playing for six months to a year with a bat such as the Eastfield Allround, or one of our Palio bats, then the Eastfield Offensive could be the perfect upgrade for you! I’ve had a number of intermediate-level players try my bat and really like it.
As I’m sure you’re aware, I’ve been playing and coaching table tennis for over 20 years now. And I play at a decent standard too (a few years ago I reached a high of 123rd in the English men’s ranking list). I’ve been using this bat for all of my table tennis coaching, training, and competitive matches for the past six months now – and I’m playing really well with it!
Previously, I was using a Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit blade (RRP £120/$145) and Tenergy 05 rubbers (RRP £60/$80) on both sides. So my old bat cost in total £240. Almost two and a half times more than my new Eastfield Offensive.
Where to Buy?
The Eastfield Offensive Professional Table Tennis Bat is available for £99.95 (or $119.95) from the following retailers…
- EastfieldCo.com
- Amazon.co.uk
- Amazon.com (with AmazonGlobal worldwide shipping)
For my European readers, you can buy an Eastfield Offensive for €109.95 from Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, or Amazon.es.
If you are in India, we should have some available over there by early 2019.
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