Tonight I just ended a 2 1/2hr practice session with an assortment of Columbia equipment. The lanes in this particular house usually have a super high concentration of oil from 7-7(Pulled shots will go straight and washout or hit the pocket very messy, shots bounced out early to the dry come back like someone kicked it to go through the nose) so finding the "Right" breakpoint to enable you to come in flush is pretty crucial when the lanes are fresh. This forces many bowlers to migrate right with a very aggressive ball in order to maximize your area(missed shots right still hit the pocket, pulled shots inside with an aggressive ball generates just enough flare and continuous arc to cut through the flood of oil in the middle).
I bowled about 20-30 warmup shots cyclying through balls on 3 different lines
-Playing direct and firm in the dry around 1st arrow and out
-Playing a small swing with a firmer speed and higher revolutions from 12-10 to 7-5 at the break
-Paraelling myself in the oil with a firmer hand and higher revolutions playing direct and inside of 10
Here were the suprising results, the Ricochet Rebound seemed to match up well with lines on 2 and 3, just provided too much early hook which didn't suprise me. My Sport ball seemed to handle every shot very well, but had major carry issues on lines 2 and 3. I attributed that to the axis type drilling I have in it(1 1/2" pin to PAP) and the matte finish. And my Hybrid shell test ball was money from the 1st line, couldn't miss flush if I tried, but on lines 2 and 3 the ball just wouldn't turn the corner(can be attributed to the Urethane base for the shell of the ball).
Then out of nowhere comes a guy that I gave my Wild to about 4 months ago and he shows me the ball I gave him and goes "Remember this ball? Look it cracked all the way around" and sure enough there was a crack from the middle finger(starting at the old plug) all the way around the ball to the ring finger. He was about to throw the ball into the dumpster but I told him to hold on and let me throw it a few shots. I threw a couple of shots just to get the feeling with the ball, wasn't really looking at anything in particular and the ball came screaming back from multiple angles like someone kicked it to pound the hole the first 3 shots. I thought it was pretty weird because I never remember my Wild turning the corner this hard(drilled pin 3 1/2 from PAP, C.G. under the middle finger, weighthole in NEGATIVE finger quadrant). So I turn on the computer to go into scoring mode and I tried a whole game on each of the three lines I was practicing and this Wild with a fracture around the entire ball was giving me a look on the lanes I haven't seen in a long time from any ball. Late, sharp, strong entry angle making for all sorts of pin crushing strikes and flying messengers(from every angle, even up the boards in all of that soup in the middle). Before I knew it, I was 4 games in with games of 226-248-224-253 with the Wild. I'm still not sure how on such a condition a High R.G. medium differential highly polished solid 3-Piece ball gave me the best look on three distinctly different lines.
I was thinking about trying a Scout Hi-Flare(Particle Version), but after tonight, I might be tempted to punch up a Wild or the Scout equivalent with the same exact drilling just to have that "Push-Push-Push-----SCREAM on the backend" type of reaction in my bag that I do not have now.
To the Columbia throwers and staffers do you think a Backyard Bully with the same drilling would give me the same type of reaction, just a little bit more on the backend or since I like this reaction so much just to go with another Wild, Scout, or Hi Flare Scout since this one is cracked all the way around?
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-DP3
Respect the Game
Edited on 6/29/2005 11:14 PM
Edited on 6/29/2005 11:15 PM
