The Outcry
Review Date: 22 August 2014
Reviewed by:
Roto Grip staffer John Brockland
Style: Stroker Rev Rate: 280-310
PAP: 5.25" over and 1" up
A new release for Roto Grip this August in the HP2 line was a pretty easy thing to predict. So much success had been had with the pearl UPROAR and the solid RUMBLE that a hybrid was pretty likely sure to come next. Hence, the OUTCRY. Same Late Role 51™ core as its predecessors, but a new 53M™ Hybrid cover stock.
I've benefitted a lot from having the RUMBLE in my bag. Particularly on short patterns it has given me a great even rolling, smooth back end look off the gutter. It's also enabled me to bounce back to the right sometimes and find a look on other patterns when the middles have already been burned up. The single downside for me about the RUMBLE is that when I've tried to use it migrating left through transition on most patterns, it's been too weak a core with too strong a cover for my game and has usually produced 4-pin vs. plaque 10 results.
When Roto Grip released the pearl UPROAR I was hopeful it would do in those situations what the RUMBLE didn't. However, I have to say that the UPROAR has been more miss than hit for me personally even though it has been money for many who have more a power game than I do. For me, most of the time the UPROAR has only accentuated that over/under situation that the RUMBLE sometimes gets into for me and the 4-pin vs. plaque 10 situation has turned into through the face split vs. buckets and 2-10's.
The result of all that was that I wasn't sure what I wanted to try to accomplish with the OUTCRY - a hybrid of the other two. Roto Grip gives it a guts rating equivalent to the RUMBLE and UPROAR, which is logical since it's the same core. The grime rating on the OUTCRY is 2 points stronger than the UPROAR and 2 points weaker than the RUMBLE. I made the decision to go with a layout similar to the RUMBLE I have liked so much in the hope that it gives me a nice compliment to it. The pin is above and just right of the center of my bridge. The numbers come out to 50 x 4.5 x 40 with a 1" weight hole just below my PAP.
The first outing with the OUTCRY was a practice session on a transitioned house shot on a pretty worn wood surface. The OUTCRY definitely smoothed out the over/under look that the UPROAR was creating in that circumstance. It didn't jerk left as early or as drastically off the dry track on shots leaked a little to the right and it held its own much better against the remaining oil in the middle of the lane on shots that missed left a little. Compared to the UPROAR it would face up to the pocket rather than putting me in the dreaded bucket and 2-10 zone.
Unfortunately, I haven't had opportunity to use the OUTCRY much on more difficult sport compliant patterns. I'm anxious to see what it provides. My early intuition is that it may be a really good ball for various stages of transition. We'll have to see. Time will tell. In the right circumstances so far, it certainly has gone through the pins pretty darn well so I have no lack of confidence that in the right circumstance it'll strike just fine! Based on my early intuitions, I'd be pretty confident to recommend the OUTCRY as a reliable tool for a league bowler to have in the bag. Given the way it smoothed out the transitioned house shot I was practicing on, I think it might be a good league weapon here in the STL.
 
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