I had an opportunity to practice on the cheetah pattern last night. It was layed out on AMF HPL synthetics. Compared to what our house shot has been for the last 6 months (bone-dry), the cheetah actually seemed "tight"! Still there were very strong backends, but at least there was some head oil to get the ball a little ways down the lane.
Equipment layouts (and some photos) in my profile. I started out with my polished khameleon as I expected the ball just to take off..but that didn't seem to be the case for me. I was able to get to the pocket, but I had to play straight up the 2-3 board. Any tug inside and the ball ran high... anything outside and it seemed to push too far down the lane and not carry well. This ball had a very sharp backend reaction (wouldn't be my first choice). I switched to the 4000 grit khameleon and had to play the same area of the lane, but had a little better look (didn't push as far down the lane)... little smoother backend. This gave me a little more mistake room.. but still not too much. Any small miss inside would still run high. Just S&G, I pulled out my Fury and gave that a shot. Surprisingly, I found a nice line crossing 5 at the arrows out to the ditch at 37'-38' and was pretty much locked in the pocket. A little tug inside at the arrows (as long as I sent it to the ditch) still hit the pocket. The Fury really had a strong backend reaction, but not uncontrollable. Probably not my first choice, but definitely usable. I tried moving in even deeper, but I ran into terrible over/under reaction at anything left of 8 at the arrows... Since I could make it to the pocket with the Fury, I pulled out the sanded strike zone and gave it a shot. I could play a similar line as the Fury (with some more speed), but got a much different look. Very smooth off the end of the pattern. Probably my best look came after a couple games (and throwing the sanded stuff) when I pulled out my charge pearl. I had to move back right some play around 5-6 at the arrows out to the 1-2 board. Nice length and strong/smooth turn over.
Two of use were throwing on the pattern.. and even after 10 games total, I never really moved much (maybe in a couple boards). I think this pattern is very playable if you are not afraid to play around/outside of the first arrow. Personally I would rather have the Cheetah than the bone-dry house shot they put out... I did notice that a plastic ball is a very good idea for shooting at spares though. The backend were so strong that anything besides a "straight up the back" release of resin equipment would hook enough to miss most single pin spares.
S^2
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Thank You... Only a Year Late!
I was shocked! says Theismann
