Well, I played with my modified Dr Evil last night. To re-cap, I used
TearMender to add a linen backing to a sheet of Dr Evil rubber. The sheet went
from being .055" thick to being .07" thick (1.4mm to 1.8mm). I glued the rubber
to my backup Donic Waldner All Play - a five ply all wood modern blade. The
modified sheet was red. I put a standard black sheet of Dr Evil on the other
side of the blade. Here are links to some photos of the result.

http://www.jayandwanda.com/tt/rubber/TT018511_sm.jpg
http://www.jayandwanda.com/tt/rubber/TT018513_sm.jpg

When I bounce a ball on the linen backed rubber I get somewhat duller and lower
pitch noise than I get from the unmodified side. The ball doesn't bounce as
high off of the modified rubber as it does from the standard rubber. Though the
difference is not dramatic.

So Wednesday night I played two matches at a "so-so" level using my other All
Play with unmodified Dr Evil losing the first match to a moderately strong
looper and having a hard time blocking his loops down. But I won the second
match exerting some effort against a somewhat lower rated pips-out hitter. I
didn't feel very in sync with the racket last night. I might have thought that
this was because I'm coming off of playing exclusively with the Hardbat Classic
racket, but I felt very much in sync on Monday playing with Dr Evil.

Next up is a 1872 rated penhold player. He quickly loops just about any ball
that doesn't bounce twice, blocks of the bounce, and will quick hit anything
loose. While I regularly take games off of this player, I think I've only
beaten him once or twice in a match. I decided to use the modified Dr Evil
against him.

In warm-up, I notice that that on strong strokes, the linen-backed rubber seems
to require a slightly more closed racket angle. But I also notice that it
handles incoming strong topspin balls more easily. There's more control - more
absorption of the ball's energy.

As the match begins, things seem pretty typical. I play a close first game but
lose. So I change strategy and decide to really focus on rolling balls and
avoiding pushing as much as possible. I also concentrate on making controlled
shots and not going for early winners. Things start to click. I feel less
pressure from the other guy's game and more in control. I'm getting points on
good placement and on his mis-hits on longer rallies. In the fifth game, the
game where he usually re-exerts control, I'm the one who exerts control and win.
Hmmm. Was it strategy or was that linen making a difference?

I won a couple more matches that I'm expected to win and end up playing the
penholder again. I win the first game easily. I'm in control of everything. I
find that I'm able to either strongly attack his side-underspin serves to my
backhand using my forhand or am able to make a slow topspin return deep. I'm
pushing very few balls back, taking away his attack. I win the first game
easily. Too easily. It feels odd. I'm leading in the second game but make a
few silly mistakes. I think I lost focus for a bit. The other fellow wins a
close game. In the third and fourth games, I'm in near total contol. I can
roll or attack just about any shot including his serves which I'm often taking
with my forehand with the linen backed Dr Evil.

When the other guy does get in an attack, I'm able to control many of his strong
topspin shots. Backhand or forehand, I'm blocking two and three loops back in a
row (I still need to work on my chopping game). But the forehand seems to suck
energy out of the shots a bit better. I win the match easily 3-1. That, folks,
just doesn't happen with me playing this fellow. I never win easily. Ever.

A couple matches later, I play him again. I think he's bugged by the losses.
He needs to figure out what's happening. He wins this one 3-2. Frankly, I think
this is a combination of me being tired now after six or more straight matches
without a break.

Anyway, the upshot is this. I think the linen adds a degree of additional
control. It may also increase the ball's dwell time on the racket, increasing
spin capability to a small degree. It has a feel now that is closer to the
3-ply Hock with Leyland that I played with against Bob Palgon in Vegas (a racket
borrowed from Scott Gordon).

Did it make Dr Evil more "sponge-like?" I'm not sure. Maybe a little in some
ways. But it made the racket overall a little slower as well, which isn't
sponge-like.

I'll play with it more this weekend against the robot and maybe other humans and
let y'all know what I think. But right now I really like the modification for
the extra control that it allows me. And that's a shame since the modification
is illegal. It does make me think right now that if they were to add a linen
backing to Dr Evil from the factory, increasing the base thickness slightly,
that it would move the rubber that much closer to having a classic Leyland feel.

Jay Turberville
www.jayandwanda.com