Demoing The New Brunswick, DV8 and Radical Bowling Technologies

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.