The Uproar
Review Date: 6 January 2014
Reviewed by:
Roto Grip staffer John Brockland
Style: Stroker Rev Rate: 280-310
PAP: 5.25" over and 1" up
Don't be fooled! It says it's an HP-2 sector ball - that is, a member of the weaker section of the Roto Grip lineup - but this ball is not weak!
Like the RUMBLE it would be a darn shame if this ball ever got lost in the shuffle of Roto Grip's other new releases for January, 2014 because this ball is darn good!
Roto Grip has taken a simply shaped, effective, and awesome rolling core - which I've already grown to like a whole lot in the RUMBLE solid - and enhanced its performance capacity by wrapping it in a pearl cover (51ML™) that makes it a toy many may have been looking for in the Roto Grip line. While the core is called Late Role 51™ it's anything but sluggish about getting going. And while its new pearl coverstock may carry a numerical grit rating 4 points weaker than the RUMBLE solid, the UPROAR is not bashful about making a strong move at the breakpoint!
I've been hoping for a symmetrical pearl in the Roto Grip line that would give me effortless clean length and effectively let me create a strong hockey stick back end shot shape. I felt like I had close to what I wanted in the SHATTER, but the "hit" which that ball created seemed just a little weak to me sometimes. I tried to create what I was looking for with a layout we put on a DERANGED, but in the end I think we were just trying to make that Middle Roll 707trade; core - smooth and arcing in nature as it is - do something it wasn't designed to do. The UPROAR on the other hand does what I was hoping for!
My UPROAR is drilled stacked with the pin about an inch above my ring finger, which puts the CG about parallel with the midpoint of my grip (pin to PAP is about 4.25 inches and the drilling angle is about 70 degrees). Typically for me this is a layout that stores up a lot of energy and gives me a good strong kick left at the break point.
I haven't had extensive opportunity to use the UPROAR on a wide variety of lane patterns yet. I've used it on a hooking, wet/dry house pattern a few times and the ball was actually too strong going through the pins - lots of stoned 8 pins and 9 pins. There came a point in the course of match play during this year's Storm Holiday Doubles - a long day of doubles matches on a modified house pattern in a center with an old wood surface and a burned up track - when I think I should have been gutsy enough to put it in play. I just hadn't tested it enough yet to feel confident about doing that when I had a partner counting on me. I threw it for three frames at the end of the last game of the day and it struck every time!
The long and short on the UPROAR it that I think this ball is a fooler and could prove to be the key to much success if it doesn't get overlooked because of people thinking it's just another low-end ball. Trust me, it isn't! Especially if you've thrown the RUMBLE, you like what you've seen, and now you're looking for a good, clean symmetrical pearl that you can create some strong back end with...drill yourself an UPROAR.
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