I got to try out my Sting today. Wow! The ball is strong and very continuous. I was talking with Galen a few weeks back asking him about the Sting and wondering if there would be overlap with the Terminator and he was telling me that the Sting would have one of the strongest, if not the strongest, continuation on the back of any ball they have ever produced. He was not lying!
I laid the ball out pin under ring and cg kicked to a 50 degree angle with a small hole on my val in the thumb quadrant. This comes to a 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 layout for me. I left the box in oob condition. The house I went to had AMF synthetics and the oil machine was just run on my lane as I was getting my shoes on. Although it was fresh, this house is not known for putting down a lot of oil. I started with my Conqueror to loosen up and was already playing 16 to 10 to start. By the end of the game I was at least looking at 18 and was still leaving 4 pins (so much for fresh oil). I started the second game with the Sting and played the same line to see what I would get and the ball went high. It has a different look than the Conqueror, where the CQ has a lot of midlane and has a nice punch in the back, the Sting gets more length in the heads but bam, turns real hard on the back. I spent the second game getting a feel for the ball and by game 3 decided I would be standing on 35 and playing between 4th and 5th arrow out to about 12. Normally at this house, as the lanes transitioned and the more left I was forced to move, I could still hit the pocket but I couldn't carry the 10. Just a limitation in my game. I think the Sting may change that. Even at that deep angle (for me) this ball absolutely crushed the pins. I started strike, 9 pin spare and then sheet. There was no doubt about any of these shots. There wasn't any need for messengers because there was nothing left on the deck. This ball hits hard and carries great. I'll need to play around with different shots to see how it does on broken down/carrydown type shots but on this wet/dry fresh house shot, it was great. May be too strong at the back for PBA shots. LaneMasters makes such great equipment, I can't understand why I don't see more of it on the racks.
Next session I want to compare the Conqueror to the Terminator.
