Got my first chance to throw The Thing Lives today. My first one.
It's a 2" X 4" layout with a small hole on my PAP. A small amount of polish... just to purdy it up. House shot, plenty of oil in the heads, medium-strong backends with hang outside of 5.
First I was throwing my Thing Returns. I was laying the ball down around 22 at the arrows and could swing it to 7-10 and it would recover fine. One of my stronger balls. After getting comfortable with that shot I took out the Thing Lives, threw the same shot, and hit the 3 pin in the face... as I expected.
I moved 5 right with my feet and aimed for 17-18 at the arrows, with the break point near the same spot. Five bagger. Scooched my feet one board left and tried to get it wide a little, maybe with the breakpoint around 15... light strikes. Carried the 10-pin nicely.
The Thing Lives is a stronger ball, by design, than the Thing Returns and I didn't need that. Putting the pin 2" from my axis really calmed the ball down. Very readable and deliberate backend, performed very well on the fresh oil. With three games on the ball, I can say I like this reaction. I was sceptical because I have not had success with solid Soaker covers (i.e. Element/Anomaly). But I think the SoakerX (new improved formula) has changed that. I think I will drill another one and put the pin 3/4" - 1" farther from my PAP (maybe a larger hole on the PAP) and that should give me an extra 5 boards in the backend.
This ball gets the Bamaster Seal o' Approval!
Tony
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