SURFACE PREP
Grit: 500/4000 abralon (fresh 500 pad on spinner with moderate pressure, then fresh 4000 pad with moderate to light pressure)
Type: (Matte, Polish, Sanded): Sanded
LANE CONDITION
Two different house shots:
1) Kingpin Lanes, AMF HPL synthetics, ~6 years old. 42 foot typical newer house wall, lots of friction outside 5, quite a bit of friction from 5 to 10, and heavy volume of oil inside 10. The shot starts out playable from the outside for me, but dries up very quickly because most bowlers tend to stay further outside except for the crankers, and the heads start to go by the start of the 2nd game. I do not have enough tilt to stay on top of the friction most nights and either have to move deeper and swing into the friction with a weaker ball, or migrate left with a stronger ball and play in the oil.
2) Executive Strike & Spare, old wood lanes. It's a second-shift league, but they run a head fill shot for us most of the time. The result is a very, very defined friction spot in the track area around the second arrow that can result in early hook, with slightly more oil than usual from the gutter to the 7 board, and sloppy backends inside 10. One of the lower-scoring house shots I've bowled on, I only average around 212-215 in this house when I average 230 at Kingpin and 204 in a PBA Experience league.
BALL REACTION
Length: Moderate length in oil, but very responsive to friction, so length may not be there once the heads and midlane start to dry up.
Back End: Very, very strong motion off the end of the pattern. Quick-revving and a defined hard arc, but it is a controllable motion because it doesn't hook/stop. The ball revs up and just keeps driving, provided it is kept in the oil long enough to do so.
Overall Hook: With the 500/4000 surface I use, it covers more boards than any other pearl I've ever thrown (roughly 4-5 boards more than a Gravity Shift with the same kind of layout and surface). On medium heavy oil, it can hook nearly as much as a Mutant Cell or Dimension, and on medium oil where those balls would burn up, it would cover more boards than them.
Midlane Read: Even though it is extremely clean through the front part of the lane, it does a good job of picking up in the midlane without expending too much energy or hooking too soon.
Breakpoint Shape: Extremely defined left turn, but not as violent or purely angular as a Reign. It's hard to describe, but it's a "rolly skid/flip" kind of motion.
COMMENTS
Likes: This ball is VERY strong. I cannot emphasize enough how strong it really is. Compared to a 4"x5"x1.5" Tropical Heat pearl with the same 500/4000 surface on the same house shots, I must move my feet and my breakpoint several boards left to stay in the oil as long as possible. The ball is so responsive to the friction that large mistakes right will NOT make it back as easily as they would with the Tropical Heat because the ball will rev up and transition to a forward roll very quickly. However, it still makes it back enough to leave a single pin spare at worst, and quite often it will strike anyway on a very light hit because of the severe entry angle it generates. Mistakes inside do seem to hold pocket fairly well, and pin action is again very good even when hitting a little high thanks to the entry angle it can create.
Because the ball is so strong, I am able to move further left and stay away from the early friction created by the soft-handed guys throwing heavy oilers up the friction. This also lets me stay closer to the area where the heavier handed bowlers are breaking down the pattern, which can help break the pattern down in a way that helps guide the ball back to the pocket.
The ball is also very user-friendly, which is surprising for a strong asymmetrical. Shots that come off my hand a little flat or lazy tend to still roll up and make it back to the pocket, and shots where I overturn my hand create good skid early, but still roll up early enough to mix the pins up well. I have yet to bowl under 730 for three games with this ball (though I'm sure I just jinxed that!) because it's so forgiving on those kind of mistakes.
With surface, this is the best pearl ball I have seen for handling carrydown. I bowled against a team Tuesday night that was full of beginners throwing house balls and plastic, and we saw an extreme amount of carrydown. During the first game, I struggled to figure it out, but it finally clicked by the end of the game -- I moved five boards right and used a weaker release (like I might use on a fresh sport pattern where I want to control the ball motion) to roll it directly up the 9 board and shot 289-267 back to back. (High flush 7 pin and high flush 4-7-9 split, and one tugged ball where the only non-strikes those games). Everyone else on the pair struggled to kick the corners out because their balls were skidding longer than usual, and if anyone tried throwing something stronger it wanted to roll too soon, but the Anarchy continued to get down the lane and roll through the pins well.
Dislikes: This is certainly not the ball to use when the oil starts to go away. If I can keep chasing the oil inside to stay closer to the tweeners and crankers, it's very effective, but if that friction becomes too prevalent, the ball will expend all its energy early and be hard to control and not carry well. That is typical of a stronger ball, but still worth noting.
