Globe 999 National version

Luckily I managed to save a sheet of this for myself bef0re they were all sold! I got a black 2.2mm one which I normally use on my FH.

The topsheet was tacky but not ultra tacky like the normal Globe 999. I hear the red topsheet is almost non-tacky, but I have not tried this myself. The spongeof mine is dark blue, and is marked with the special stamp, and marked 38deg (or was it 39?). It felt a fair bit harder than that to me, more like 41-42, but it all depends on what you compare it to and what scale was used.

Since I feel this rubber is usually used speed glued, I decided to try that straight away as well (apart from the fact that I could hardly wait to try it!). I primed it with a few layers of normal speed glue, left it to stretch and shrink back overnight, than glued it up with my Tibhar Rapid Clean Delux. The first thick layer produced almost no dome, but a second thin layer (an hour later) produced a decent dome. I put it on my slow blade (Stiga Energy) since I was afraid it would be too fast on my faster blades. I did not stretch the rubber onto the blade, and the gluing hardly strechted it either.

Well the rubber played VERY nice! I had great control in the short game (where the glued up sponge did not have much impact), and felt awesome on loops. I hit my counter loops (against my ball machine with a moderate amount of topspin set) harder and harder, but they seemed to get spinnier so they still dropped. Hitting/driving felt really nice too, as with most harder sponged rubber.

Against chop I found the throw a little lower than I expected, and had to hit through the ball a little more to get then over. These too produced very good spin.

This rubber has the most gears of any rubber I have tried. A full on hit/drive comes off very fast, but on the other hand I still have enough control to chop with it as well.

The second time I glued it up (almost a week later), it got a good dome with the first thick layer of glue. This time I rolled it onto the blade a little harder, and was surprised to see it streched about 8mm whgich was not my intention! Playing comp that night, it felt a little too fast for me, but toward the end of the night I started to adjust. I think I won't stretch it at all in the future, since it's already plenty fast for me, and I'd rather get a little more control.

No doubt I'm a little excited with this rubber, and may make it sound a little better than it really is. I will continue using it to see if I can find any weaknesses, and hope to adjust to it even better. I think this rubber will prove a great success for Globe.