This is the first Ebonite ball I've drilled in quite a while, despite all the Apex Mania in our general area (seems like everybody and their brother-in-law has at least two of the Apex series in their bags). I'm right-handed, medium speed, rotationally-challenged and a stroker. I drilled it 'pin-down', a sort of 'special-effects' ball, with things lined up in a 4:30 direction on a straight line as follows: Center of grip --> pin --> CG --> X-hole (on vertical axis line). After weight-hole, it comes out about 1/2 oz. positive side and about 1/4 oz. to the thumb. My desire was for EARLY roll, to combat soaked conditions and Sport-type patterns with tons of head-oil. I left the coverstock in box finish (dull) and have kept it there.
On Regional or Sport conditions, it works very well; the head-oil gets it down-lane far enough before it reacts, and it arcs strongly once it runs out of the oil, and carries well. Also, characteristic of this type layout, it's very 'vocal' about telling you that it is DEFINITELY time to put it back in the bag. On Sport patterns, it tends to tame down the major effects that relatively-minor errors tend to produce with other equipment on that condition.
The BIG surprise was, when I tried it on a house shot in league, a fairly-typical Xmas-tree wall, I took it out of the bag and instantly shot 300 with it. In fact, the first 14 in a row were dead-flush, none of them so much as a hair off. The 15th, which felt identical in every way, went through the beak high for a Greek church, which was the "Put me away NOW" signal; unfortunately, my team captain, who is large and belligerent, threatened bodily harm if I changed balls after shooting a perfect, so I held onto it too long and shot only 179 second game-- but that was my mistake, not the ball's. I've used it several times since on house conditions, with good results; but if even one person has practiced on that pair before the league, I can't use it. Perhaps with less early-rolling layouts it would be more forgiving, but with this drilling, it ABSOLUTELY NEEDS HEAD OIL. When this ball hits any kind of dry wood, it is going to MOVE.
Rating: AT LEAST 8.5...... probably higher if you count the PRICE of this ball. An EXCELLENT oil ball, at a VERY attractive price. It also cleans up well, without undue maintenance efforts, and has not shown any tendency to die out with age or increased use. GOOD selection.
MC
