Elite has been much maligned in this forum, and I wanted to share my experience. I am a regional member who has been relatively successful on the longer/tighter patterns, but the shorter patterns have chewed me up. I throw Brunswick almost exclusively and on Pattern 2 (former Pattern E), I get over/under with reactive but flat 10's with particle. Looking for ideas, of course I turned to the message boards
which is where I learned about the Elite P43. The combination of a strong weight block with a particle cover seemed like a good compromise.
Called Bowlers Paradise and spoke with Gary who convinced me to drill it ‘weaker’ than I had intended (pin center of grip, CG at 45 degrees, hole down – the famed RICO1 in the Brunswick forum) to create roll and continuation. Turned out to be excellent advice on the layout. I have not yet had the opportunity to use it on the intended regional pattern, but in box condition (slight shine) on a wet-dry house shot, the P43 definitely blended the over/under. Quickly reads the mids with a very strong continuous arc through the pit. It picked up a roll on shots that never got to the dry, but didn't over-bounce when I would get it right early. By comparison, with reactive I had to create bad angles through the heads (Ultimate Inferno) or too much down lane (Classic Zone); with particle (Raging Inferno) getting to the hole was easy but came with a total lack of carry.
With the P43 I was able to parallel in as the heads broke down and maintain the ‘hit’ for much longer than I expected. When it finally stopped kicking the corners out, the mids hooked enough that reactive played well. This ball fills a void – cleaner up front than most particle balls, does not change directions too quickly off the dry, and yet is strong enough to allow a tweener to snap the corners out. This is an excellent piece of equipment.