Drilled one up last night... I had contacted MoRich with a layout request for longer sport patterns and the USBC pattern. For my specs, Fred suggested a 5" pin to PAP and a 4 1/8" MB to PAP, 2" above the midline. When I layed the ball out, it put the top edge of the pin in my ring finger..since I have been going gripless, I wanted to avoid this.. so I shifted the pin down slightly.. making 1.75" above my midline.. just enough to miss the pin with my ring. From the sheets, this layout appears to be closest to the forward roll type of layout. The ball required a small weight hole, which was placed 1" up my VAL from the midline. I left the ball with the box finish...the compound.. not quite polished, but not dull either.
I took it out for a few test shots on the lanes. HPL synthetics with a day-old house shot left over from leagues the previous night. The pattern is on the dry side to begin with.. and after a league has bowled, its really dry.. so not the best conditions, but all I had to work with at the time. Started out with a shot hitting 10 at the arrows out to the ditch.. the ball revved up/burnt up early enroute to rolling out as it passed the 2-pin, heading for the ditch. I moved in another arrow, hitting 15 and swinging it out towards the ditch. A little more length down the lane, but a similar result. That shot caught the 2 pin flush.. LOL. Early hook and roll out. Made another move where I could hit 22 at the arrows and send the ball out to the 7-8 board area down the lane. Finally I found enough oil to get the ball to push a little. The ball had the oddest reaction I have ever seen. Off my hand, it didn't appear to have much on it at all.. almost as if I had just totally missed the release... the ball just sort of floated down the lane. All of a sudden, the ball reached the breakpoint and it was as if someone had flipped a switch (or started up the motor). The ball went from appearing to have no revs to looking like I absolutely killed it. The ball really appeared to rev up. However, there was no sudden jerk or "flip"... just a very strong arcy forward roll. I played around for another game or so, just bumping in, to see how deep I could get and still carry... ended up hitting around 27-28 at the arrows and just pushing the ball towards the 3-pin (maybe 13,14,15 at the BP).. the ball would just skid and then "stand-up" at the pocket. If I missed too far right, the ball didn't seem to want to make it back.. although I attribute this to the large angle I was playing and the very rolly nature of the ball/layout (I'm not sure any equipment would have recovered on wide shots though).
In OOB condition, this ball is strong and needs head oil. I just can't see anyone using this ball on drier conditions, but then again, it wasn't designed for these conditions. The ball really revs up at the break point (providing it doesn't burn up prior to reaching the break point). For me, this lead to a strong rolly type of finish.. again, I think this is due to the layout I used (and requested). I think this is going to be a great ball for the longer PBA patterns (and fingers crossed, the fresh USBC's)... it appears to make a strong move at the end of the pattern, but not a huge change in direction.
I bowl on the Shark pattern next week prior to leaving for Reno, so I will get a change to really see how it performs on a longer oil pattern. I'll update before leaving... So far, I am impressed.
S^2
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The perfect qb/receiver combo in Miami:
Ginn & Juice
(Ted Ginn Jr and Cleo Lemon)
