Globe 888 1.8mm red
A friend was kind enough to lend me this rubber so that I
could try it (thanks Alan!)
Medium size grippy pimples on a 38deg fairly soft sponge.
Tested on a HAO Shuai Champion carbon blade.
Pushing – great for this, was able to keep the ball low,
with a moderate amount of spin. It has very good control in the short game, even
on this carbon blade.
Chopping – against loops this gave reasonable control
with some spin reversal. A slower wooden blade would no doubt improve this,
since the dwell time would have been much better. It certainly does not offer
them same control and a long pimple rubber, but it’s a lot better than most
short pimples I have tried.
Against backspin – I could loop balls with moderate
backspin and get some topspin. For heavier backspin I need to open the blade
more. However against backspin it was surprisingly easy to hit the ball, long
pimple style. This tell me there is decent spin reversal since the ball was
dropping.
Against topspin
– This felt a lot like short pimples, able to hit straight through the ball
without having to worry about the spin too much. It was quite good for this.
Blocking was also surprisingly easy, similar to short pimples.
In conclusion I found it to be a very versatile rubber,
with a moderate amount of deception. It’s more of an offensive than defensive
rubber, but it has plenty of control for chopping or pushing, and offers some of
the deceptive abilities that long pimpled rubbers offer. Alex...
Regarding the 888, it’s a great rubber, it’s the
closest that I’ve seen pips come to inverted, so it has some of the advantages
of both. It doesn’t keep you guessing as to what you’re doing like the long
pips do, and I think the 1.8mm is the ideal sponge thickness with the 38 degree.
I’ve got a fairly good forehand loop and I’m playing the 888 on my forehand,
so it’s definitely got enough in it to loop with.
Globe 888, 1.8mm 38 degree sponge:
Speed:
The speed is quite good, probably similar to the
‘standard’ friendship rubber, which I found quite good for ‘pips’.
Spin:
Surprisingly good for looping, and amazingly, even good for
slow loops, which I’d never seen in pips. I’ve got a TT room and Newgy
robot, which I mainly have set in ‘service’ mode, the 888 is easy to roll
the ball back, float, or push, it doesn’t fly off when I set the robot with
heavy spin.
Control:
It’s the first pips rubber I’ve used that I seem to
have control over; most of the others I tried controlled me.
Tony B.
|
