After reading a number of explanations on finishing a ball with wet newspaper instead of polish compound. I gave it a whirl on my Black Pearl Reactive. I first took it all the way down to 500, some clean n' dull, then up to 1000, from there I added the newspaper finish. Looks like a very hazy sheen, not polished. I would usually take an experimental finish and throw a few games, but didn't have time. Plus this is my go to ball and I am pretty confident in adjusting with it.
So I took it to league last night, which is on a 43' THS. It's a new pattern this year and a little longer than they have ever laid down, they are old synthetics and hook a lot. This year with this ball I have been very successful playing 12 out to 8 with a nice pop on the back end which can me into trouble in the third game ending up at about 17 out to 8 with out much control. What this new finish did was move me two boards right to start and calm the backend pretty drastically, at the very end of the night I was were I would have normally started maybe just a hair left at the arrows. Shot 725, front 9 in the first game with a bonehead open in the tenth after leaving a stone 8.
So this newspaper finish killed the back end, really helped take care of any over/under during transition and limited overall movement throughout the night. It helped a lot at this house, but this house is notorious for high carry on half-pocket/cookie-cutter hits. I don't think I would be able to use this ball in most other houses around here in it's current finish, but this ball just got that much better in this house, especially if I have a few people in my area.
