Brunswick seminar Monday October 13th. I
rolled the DV8 Thug, Hooligan and
Outcast, Radical Guru (wow) and Score, Brunswick Mastermind Intellect
(wow), and Brute.
Lane conditions were standard bumper bowling house shot,
but if you get in enough there was some oil (of course). Started by rolling a Roto Grip Defiant, my strongest
personal ball, drilled mild. When I lined up very deep on the fresh pattern
with the Defiant, I was impressed
with the Guru and Intellect and their ability to handle
the oil volume. The ball layouts are kind of neutral for the demo (typically
the Pin is above the finger holes and Center of Gravity in or near the middle
of grip, but they are lots stronger than my normal layouts.
I started with the Radical
Technologies Guru and then Brunswick
Mastermind Intellect, the two strongest balls I planned to demo. Both stood
up to their hype. Big hooking balls remove oil from the lane quickly, so I
didn’t want to wait to try them.
The Guru was
easily as much ball as the Defiant
and some more, and the demo layout actually helped get the ball down the lane
for me, with more kick downlane. The Intellect
is strong with a solid cover and compound finished veneer, unlike the original Mastermind with a 1500 dull finish. The
Masterminds (original, Genius, and
now Intellect) hook. I was very pleased with my reaction given the surface was
finished smoother, as is my Defiant,
but compound surface (smoother/shinier) handled the oil very well.
Next I was curious about the new DV8 Thug and Hooligan, then
Outcast. On the house condition,
with plenty of friction outside of second arrow, the DV8’s played well. Thanks to Legend Carmen Salvino for looking in
and suggesting a couple things.
The stronger Thug
core needed more room and looked like more speed than I could muster up the
ditch but it got down the lane an reacted as expected. The Hooligan, and for me, the (Black/Green) Outcast played particularly well. I was very pleased at what I saw
and I encourage players to come check them out.
The next products sampled were the Radical Score and Brunswick
Brute. Radical is doing a “buy your loyalty” program to appeal to better
bowlers offering a Prize fund for bowlers and shops. If a bowler shoots 300,
they can get all or part of a Bounty set aside for the ball’s users. A Bowler
wins but the pro shop who sold the ball gets an equal bonus. If this sounds
familiar it’s from the former 900 Global
President Phil Cardinale, now president at Radical
Technologies, who did the same promotion with the 900 Global Bounty, a few years ago. The Score
rolled well, as I expected. You don’t throw money at a product promotion unless
you know you have something special. The shiny Brute on the other hand joined the DV8 balls as unexpectedly easy
to get down the lane with nice pop at the pins. Again, the layout is not what I
usually use but it worked well (who would have guessed) for most of the
bowlers, on the shot put out at Brunswick
Zone, Woodridge.
The new Columbia 300 Melt Down features one of the strongest cover formulas
Columbia 300 has used. Bring-It MAX
is extremely aggressive and will handle the heaviest of oil conditions. Columbia finished this eye popping
blend of solid colors (Orange/Yellow/Purple) with 500/2000 grit Abralon™, giving an already strong
cover some teeth to help handle those heavy patterns. Design
intent for Heavy Oil Lane Condition. Core - SD Medium RG.
