The ball: 16 pounds, 2.5-inch pin, 2.3 oz. starting top weight.
The drill: Pin over the middle finger, CG out to the negative side down and left of the middle finger. Works out to a 5x5.5 drill for me. Surface is box.
Me: PAP 4 over 3/8 up, tweener revs, good speed, typically high axis rotation with low tilt but can adjust
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Bought this ball because it was a particle hybrid and I'd never thrown one. I also wanted to put a weak drilling on a strong-cover ball and see if I could create a look I don't otherwise have in my bag.
I decided to send the pin above the fingers, over the middle -- a drilling that tends to give me almost too much length sometimes. I also kept the CG on the negative side. The ball almost looks like it's drilled for a left-hander.
The coverstock keeps this ball from getting too far down the lane. I have one of the particle hybrid versions rather than the reactive hybrid version, but the load doesn't appear to be as large as in other particle balls. The stock cover, however, is not as shiny as you might think. The ball feels quite aggressive out of the box.
Tested this on both fresh and broken-down THS. The ball revs up nicely, makes a predictable move in the midlane, then lays off in the back due to the drill pattern. This pattern and this cover proved to be a nice match ... the cover keeps it from getting too far out while the drill pattern keeps it from wanting to do all its work in the front half of the lane.
This ball is much like the great Brunswick balls of 10 years ago, along with some of the better Lane #1 balls from the Brunswick era. It is a midlane controller, and it basically ignores the pattern. Volume doesn't seem to have much to do with its performance. The ball smooths out rough edges of the pattern and allows me to use subtle hand position changes to tailor the reaction.
Only when the heads totally fry out did I feel I couldn't use this ball anymore. And when I did finally have to move, I moved from this ball to a Visionary Slate Blue Gargoyle -- a pearl urethane ball. That should tell you what range of conditions this ball was able to handle. A summary follows:
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Positives: Great midlane control, handles one of the widest range of conditions imaginable, responds well to hand position changes.
Negatives: Not for very dry lanes, won't come back from way outside on big misses
Overall: A blue-collar bowling ball that, due to its versatility, takes the place of multiple pieces of equipment in a bag.
Jess
