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Long 3.5 hrs session today...

Clean beat Ken again for first hour.
Then played Bandu's mate from Canberra 'Gregory' who killed Bandu. I only lost a game to Gregory who is supposedly around 1500 rating. Mostly with my service. He's got amazing killer fast loops that I rarely could even touch.

Then Bandu was on fire against me. I only got 2 games out of about 5...

I got Vinnie to let me into the training room and find that bat with Rozena.... I reckon it is 1.9 sponge which throws a spanner in the works. Maybe that is why it was botting out ... Maybe that is why I found it had so much control??? Because I must admit I have barely ever used any high end bty rubbers in less than 2.1.... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Played Naru Larry but he is a bit lower than us. Still worth a good hit with.

I found Rozena again the same. Mostly not devestating shots, so I expect the opponent to return the ball, but I also expect I will land almost every loop I did with it. It really is such an easy looping rubber... even at 1.9... same as last time the fh would bottom out too early for me but I could get used to it... but dont want to get used to it.

The one game I used it against Bandu at the end he too was missing quite a lot because he wasn't used to it's bounciness...(I would call that its speed)

I reckon I will get a sheet. I have tried a lot of the evolution and rasanters and they just aren't doing it for me...

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I felt I made a lot more mistakes all round in my game than usual... I have been pretty tired... but I reckon the versal just isn't as good at forgiving and feedback as my Sweden or the Andro blade.

Just wish my forearm would heal... I reckon the Rozena also plays so well because it is on an all round all wood blade too.

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Just paid $111.28 for my next set of rubbers:

$67 AU free shipping from Butterfly Australia for Rozena red 2.1
$44.28 AU including shipping & tax from Aliexpress Hurricane 3 blue sponge 2.2 (39/40 random hardness)

That's nearly double my usual $60 for 2 x H3s.

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I think I will happy with both. I don't expect to play twice as better though. I think it's more of a EJ happiness thing right now...

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My thoughts on Rozena.

I played tenergy rubbers more than I have any other probably. And I don't care what the reviews say. The time I spent with the old sheets of rozena shows me that it feels and plays a dam like tenergy and the price is almost half.

I believe the butterfly matrix reflects my experiences that Rozena is as spinny as tenergy 64, and as fast as tenergy 05. A kind of triangulation of two rubbers I have used on my backhand a lot. I also believe the matrix that Rozena is a much improved version of all the FX versions.

I don't want the fastest and spinniest at dignics etc. when I am used to the 'older generations' especially at the inflated prices of $130 a sheet.

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Thoughts on the blue sponge.

I know this probably is a fake and if it is not I just want to see if it does play better for me. I am guessing I will go back to a commercial version of H3 after this blue one. Because a brand new $30 one replaced more often will play better than an old one at higher prices for me.

But let's just see.

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I am not sure what to stick these down on. I care the most about the Rozena because the sponges are more fragile than hard Chinese sponges which I have moved around on blades with no problems... My current MXP is about to be torn off the blade - I tried to remove it last time at the club and got a tiny tare so stopped and played with it knowing it can't come of the Versal until sure its never going back on anything.

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I have to say I am really really excited to get the Rozena more than anything. It's just a nostalgic and totally familar feeling playing with anything tenergy like. I don't feel surprises, I just know the mechanics of the strokes and know that the ball lands. With all the tensors till now I have always felt unsure if it will land. The hurricane 3 on my backhand is trustable but it is also just so much work that I can't stay with it anymore... I can but I want to get a bit lazier to rest up my arm to be honest.

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Rozena arrived on Friday. So good btf australia are fast.

I thought hard about which blade and I chose the sweden classic and I have to just carry that extra weight because it is the best of all my blades still.

Problem was I havent used it in weeks and finally found it in my TT gluing draw except one thing! I left the newest H3 I had unprotected!!!! so it has been air drying for who knows a month???

DAM I have never seen a sheet look so bad. I would have speed glued it last time and gave it an enormous stretch because the topsheet has micro cracking across it... and that white powdery look of solvent evaporation.

I touched with my fingers and it still has tack.... I will play with it today but I doubt it is going to play as it should....

It looks like the solvent, super stretch and no protection has killed it.... oh well $30 doesn't hurt as much as a more expensive rubber would...

Let's see how I go today... I am super tired after 7 hours work this morning and playing yesterday.... my right arm feels like some one kicked me hard.

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I only played with h3 and rozena on sweden classic today.

Overall I'd say my level is the same. I need more time to get used to it - learn its way to play...

Rozena does have some slip so it requires a bit more drive in most shots. It's strength for sure was controlled rallying blocking.

My arm was dead after 3 hours. The bat feels dam heavy.

By the end I felt a bit like I am getting too old for this constantly looping thing to win.

I need to just stop playing for a month I reckon to let my arm heal... it's hard to stop playing tt when its the only thing I love doing atm.

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Oh well had to play today... almost 4 hours.

1. Sold my andro blade cost price. Michael was asking lots of questions about finding a rubber to replace his beloved tango tacky whatever...

I gave him hurricane 3s to try on 3 blades. As he slowly discovered that the blade that it is used on made a huge difference to how he wanted to loop his backhand... He like the slowest of my blades easily. It was a bit of a WTF moment for him to notice just how easy everything becomes when you slow down the blade and rubber.

But really it is where my head is at. I love H3 but the blade makes a huge difference. I can send big shots miles out of the court with the balsa versal. With the versal I have to focus hard to graze so much. With the sweden I can dig deeper into the blade and the andro def 5 just loop like mofo as hard as possible and she will go on whatever... still ultimately the andro blade is not where I can stay... I do need a bit faster.

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I did swap around between versal mxp and sweden rozena a bit. And it is forever the same difference. Versal expects accuracy and is lovely and light. vs the opposite.

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It was good to compare the mxp and rozena. Quite similar but yeah Rozena is a bit slower and spinnier. I also tried for a while to use rozena on fh and yeah I could give up h3 possibly and just use this 2.1 version on the fh, it doesnt bottom out much at all and it noticably kicks forward more.

So I guess I come back to the ideas I mentioned a few posts back that the old rozenas that I tried were probably 1.9 and I could get a click on the blade... on my backahand I liked it but not on my fh.

I am therefore wondering if I could go a bit lighter with 1.9 on the bh in future.

The Rozena is growing on me. I know it plays best a 1 metre from the table. I counter loop blocks repeatedly consistantly from there and sometimes send of a bit more drivvy loops that are low and piercing.

Close to the table it has been quite forgiving too. counter looping sofly or a bit more blocky boring style is not so bad too.

The thing is though, if I'd ever try to go down in thickness I'd be wondering if mxp thinner would be better at a cheap price.

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Play wise I beat everyone as usual except Shaun who has been putting in tons of hours on the table these days. That I can't better. Most of the points lost to Shaun though I felt it was me making mistakes but that's a poor excuse. He beat fair and square today.

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Hey Boz, I’ve got a 1.8mm Fastarc G1 lying around if you want to give that a spin, could have some of those traits you’re looking for. Also got a 2.0mm C1 :~)

Hey Vinnie the boss.

Cheers for the offer. F G1 looks to be a touch on the expensive side. I am trying to draw a line (I pray) somewhere... but I like to try everything. Even if it is just to try the thickness.

I have tried 1.2 and Nah. could never do anything with it.

I have never spent a cent on a decent rubber though at the 1.9 range and I know a long time ago there was a guy looping me off the table using that thickness to my surprise.

I know we have to remember that we don't always hit deep enough to warrant the full thicknesss. And if we aren't doing it most of the time we may be just carrying dead weight.

Bit like driving a sports car to the local supermarket.

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Few images of recent equipment changing.
1. Rozena on about to go on my Favorite blade.
2. Microcracking on unprotected H3 commercial
3/4 Brand new possibly provincial H3 40 degrees
5. Only put one layer about a table spoon or more of baby oil on it. Got a good dome of this in 24 hours.... before trialling.



I ended up playing yesterday with Shadi, Warren O for a couple of hours. I put the H3 and Rozena on the Versal... And nothing really to report there. I kept my high standard... Blade felt zippy but as usual the Versal's effect doesn't suit my fh mostly apart from smashing.

The blue H3 is hard to pin point my thoughts about. It is clearly less tacky than my commercial ones at this stage... I am hoping it will increase in tack.

The surface is extremely shiny/reflective. It seems different. It was faster and less spinny. I tried on backhand and I reckon it is better on bh but I didn't want to get used to that again.

This H3 is clearly still got more control ie less bouncy than my Rozena... that I noticed when fishing shots I wasn't ready for lower than table height.

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I doubt I will stay with Provincial for future rubber orders or the Versal when my arm gets better. The Versal suits a FH that holds back my full stroke. Good for those that restrain letting all their power...

Overall versal and these 2 rubbers felt light zippy but very cartoon one dimensional type of speed zone with less spin... I kept my win ratio against all players ... so hmmm.

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Here is just how reflective the h3 is this morning... It seems much smoother like made on glass... I can almost take a selfie with it. It's also noticed about Jeff's "national" version when I was playing him at the club a while back... it was reflecting the lights in quite an anoying way to play against.

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Wow, that's insanely reflective!

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I don't recall seeing Ma Long's for example, blade being super reflective... So I wonder if this is a fake...

You sell provincial, wonder if you have noticed anything?

I want to find out if this might be an indicator of fakeness or being genuine product.

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Had a huge session with PRW from this forum this morning.

Fattest bats I have ever seen and I got to try a lot of rubbers too. I like "battle II" 729... and his 7 ply blade.. (maybe he can share the name of it) It had a beautiful pong feeling of dwell on the fh.

Probably the most similar guy to me that I have met in a long time.

1. I used to make paddles.
2. He uses very similar rubbers.
3. We have a similar TT style. Probably nobody else I know does the sidespin block so well. Felt like I was playing a mirror.
4. He also puts ebikes together.

power loops any chance he gets with more power than your average bear. I rarely could get my paddle to his attacks. I would say his signature shot is turning on his bh side and fh power looping with a bit of hook right down the line landing right on my fh corner... too wide for me to reach.

I wasn't counting games but I reckon he got a minimum of 60% of them. (fact check me PRW)

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We had a quick best of 3 with Vinnie too at the end and he beat me 2:0... I'd say we are about 5050 in our meetings as usual... I was fading at the end though...

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Today I really felt that I was lacking spin on both wings. (I was air swinging more than usual too) but mostly I didn't really feel I had much to trouble these guys. If I aim for consistancy its too weak and will not be enough against PRW so I have to go on the offence and then I am less consistant.

I didn't find PRWs National versions (3 of them) felt much different to my supposedly provincial.

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My arm is still F*&^d and I am holding back on a lot of stuff that hurts... no excuses. But I can't serve all my full twisting shots or BH loop all the way - complete stroke. I have been doing a lot of flowing easy on the joints shots that keeps me at the table wincing less.

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All up thanks for the games guys.

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Hey Boz,

it was great to finally meet you, and to get to play for so long - I am not used to 3-hour sessions! The games were very close...

The bats in the photo above are Dr Neubauer High Technology Plus - 2 of them trimmed into quasi-Cybershapes. The 7 ply is a Tibhar Samsonov Force Pro Black - lots of control, if I was sensible I would play with it - but it doesn't have the top-end power of the Dr. N.

I look forward to our next session - trying to handle your backhand loops was a challenge for me, it was great fun - thanks!

(added for reference - the current ebike build below)

Oh dam, I thought you made the bats... Easy enough to make since balsa only needs a stanley knife... top veneer though is harder to deal with and source.

I will check out that blade and it looked similar to the stiga clipper I think everyone seems to say is the best H3 blade matching blade ever.

Yes I want to play you again because that was such hard work!
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Yes my main riding buddy has the same frame... And the name that was eluding me was
QULBIX
today. Here is my last post before my bikes went into oblivion at endlesssphere:
https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/threa ... st-1659431

I would guess you already know about that forum...

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I did make bats for a while (when I was stuck at home in Auckland during covid) - from balsa and paulownia. Then I realised that all I was trying to do was make a bat similar to the Hallmark Ultra, which was no longer being made by Steve Hall, and the Dr Neubauer was a very close replica.

That's it, Qulbix - I remember now.

Yip, I am "PRW" on the Endless Sphere forum as well - a couple of my builds are on there. I am trying to limit my ebike fleet though, my wife and I only have 2 each now.

This is the cheap dual motor folding ebike I was talking about (I have upgraded the controllers)
https://cmacewheel.com/product/foldable ... l-rx20-max

Stinking sweaty session today yuk gross. I felt out of energy after about 5 games. I used two bats about 5050 of the time...
Yasaka sweden my old commercial h3 and rozena.
The Versal with H3 provincial + neptune LP
(yeah I mixed the rubbers around)

Overall I felt all my attack strokes were dropping inconsistancy... but that could be the constant changing around with equipment...

Had about 6 games with PRW and I think we were about 5050.

I think I played slightly better with the double inverted against him.

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I didn't drop a game to Eric I think about 5 games... and that was all double inverted.
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Shaun beat me again in a quick best of 3 at first but we had more encounters later and I ultimately got way ahead in the game tally over our last few meets. The main thing was I stopped attacking so much... I am my own worst enemy... And I started finding a groove with the LP bat. I play so much better when I can just keep the ball in play and only go for the right shots occasionally... (helps my aching arm too)

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Hm.....mmmm....

I always like LP on my super slow defensive blade but on the versal it is another experience... it is all about having super soft hands and not hitting the ball forward much at all. At the end I felt I got a really good defensive game up. And annoying as it was that I can't get more 50% of my attack shots on... I have to live with some type of game. Getting the ball on the table is more improtant than spectacular shots.... I would call my shots chopping but more like knuckle balls and far from the table I was pretty consistant too.

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I found a bit of groove against pretty much everyone once I took a step back further from the table whatever I used....

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