How to attach cricket bat to wall?

[nearlytherenow]

DH is a big cricketer, and for Christmas I bought him an antique cricket bat, which we would like to display on the dining room wall. I can't for the life of me work out how to attach it though, does anyone have any ideas? Ideally it would hang vertically, and needs to be very securely attached (so that the DSs can't take it down to play with!).

A pipe clip would hold it fairly securely but might not look so nice. Could you put it in a display box frame thing and attach that to the wall ?
Just googled cricket bat display and you can get actual cricket bat display cases !
Or you could just put it very high to avoid DS's hands . .

Velcro - though when we used velcro to attach letters to the wall it did remove some of the plaster when we pulled the letters off the wall!!!! Not ideal, might prove rather permanent.

We've just been attaching odd things to the walls on one of the bedrooms - couple of ideas, but it will depend on whether this is a permanent placement or not?

First idea:
rope/chain/string round the handle and then secure that to the wall with a hook.

Or large coat/hat hooks which cradle it.

Or do what we did and use no more nails!!! (DIY not DH's strong point.... I am not going to mention that it's squint!!)