Reviews by Old School

Double Day is not a well know brand outside of Asia and I only found out about it through another player how posted a travel blog for Taiwan where he talked about this manufacturer and some of the blades they make. It's said that DD used to make blades for Butterfly but I have not been able to confirm this from additional sources.

Now to the actually blade I decided on, Valiant ALC Winner a 5 ply blade 5,7mm thick with ALC. This makes this blade similar to a Timo Boll ALC but with 2 ply's less and for 1/3 of the price and that is an absolut steal if you ask me.

The blade came in a nice box that beats any manufacturers packaging by miles and on the side was all the stats of the blade including this particular blades weight of 87g. I had asked the seller ping-pong.tw if they had a blade around 90g and this was the heaviest blade they had in stock.

The outer ply was in perfect condition rivalling the likes of Butterfly in quality and the handle in ST was nicely rounded and not squarish like Butterfly so I could get a good grip. It's not a thick handle I would say it a bout the same as a Butterfly ST handle. I compare this blade a loot to BF but that is because most players will have experience with BF blades.

How does it play, well it play like a 5 play blade with ALC I guess. I paired it with Razant Grip max thickness on both sides and I can loop for days. Opening loops, counter loops, out of position loops they come back spiny and with a good arc on the table. There was no vibrations and the blade have good speed in the OFF range. Blocking is ok but ofc. it will never feel as solid as a 7 ply all wood blade for example.

If you are looking for a quality ALC blade look no further, I will recommend this blade all week long an twice on Sunday!

And remember speed, spin and control mostly comes from you and not your bat.

Wow just wow! was my thought as I was spinning the ball back on to the table counter looping my opponent all over the table until I won the point.

When you loop the ball with this rubber you can feel how the ball sinks in to the sponge and how the grip takes hold of it to produce an incredible arc over the net. I could make loops out of position as long as I gripped the ball. More then once I was surprised when the ball kamikaze down on to the table at the end of the arc thinking that I lost the point as I would have with my old Hurricane 8 rubbers for sure.

The clicking sounds this rubber makes is just the icing on the cake.

The speed was ok for me at least, I don't want a rocket but still have a bit extra speed and Grip delivers just that.

This is STIGA's training plastic ball and all I can say is don't bother. These balls come in a pack of 6 and not a single one of them was round, they all wobbled when I tried to spin them on the table. If you overlook the fact that they are not round they play like most seamed plastic balls. Reduced bounce and spin when compared to the old ball.

I have been playing with andro PLAXON 450 on my FH for a few weeks now and I rly like this rubber.
It's has a medium sponge with good gears from soft short touches to spiny loops. It's obviously not as fast as a hard sponge rubber but fast enough to win points with. I would say it comes close to Tenergy when it comes to spin but with the added bonus of not being to fast if you think Tenergy is to fast for you.

I have had the pleasure to play on this table at my club and it's a superb table. The surface is matte to reduce glare and smooth but not slippery.
The bounce is superb and speed is top notch, the ball rly grips the table surface when you hit a topspin shot producing great speed of the bounce.

The table it self comes per-assembled and it can be moved around and set up by a single person with ease.

The seamless ball is much more durable then the seamed ball. It's ofc slower and have less spin then the old ball but compared to other plastic balls it's the same. I played with balls from the first batch that come out of the factory that had some issues with roundness but I hear later batches is much better.

Like all seamed plastic balls the Stiga plays slower, with less spin and cracks just as easily as the rest.
Normal we would loose about a quarter to half our balls during a 3-4h training session and this is ofc. unacceptable.

The Acuda S2 is a soft springy tensor rubber that is well suited for the backhand.
The rubber is non tacky with good grip. The only downside I head with it is that it would crack around the edges easily due to hitting the table during play.

It's easy to play slow spiny shots due to the soft sponge but be weary not to hit through the sponge as you will loose control.