This is going to read like a minor rant.
I swear I've never seen a ball so allergic to oil as this one. Closest thing I can think of is a Track Solution Power Plus EX, but that's a ball specifically made for drier lanes.
This week at league, I managed to book the following set: 207-148-228.
Game one was with a Gold Nugget. The front nine were clean; the 10th frame, I leave a 3-4-7 and didn't convert it. Our lanes tend to transition badly right at the end of game 1 anyway (stuff starts jumping high), so I should have seen it coming.
I fight it for the first five frames of the second game and end up with three spares and two splits. So I switched out to the Evo, drilled label and in box condition.
The rest of that game -- which ended with me getting 6 on my fill ball to lose team total points by 1 -- saw me getting a great look with the Evo unless I pulled it inside by a half-board, and then I'd hit the 3-pin right in the face.
The last game, I moved outside, found something, and basically couldn't miss on my way to 228. I had one smash-10, one 4-pin and one split in that game (my old favorite 3-4-6-7-9-10, of which I picked up everything by the 4 and 9).
I'm scared to tweak the surface on it, because when it works, it really, really works. It fills a hole, but that hole is very small and narrow. If the lanes aren't absolutely perfect, I've done nothing but bring along a boat anchor.
This is one reason why I really HATE the old Columbia covers, and why it took so long for me to take a chance on a 900G-poured Lane #1. I finally bought a Supernova XP, and that ball is both super-strong and predictable, so hopefully when 900Global took over the old Columbia plant, they tweaked the coverstocks.
I'm really hesitant to consider changes to the ball but will listen if you guys would like to pitch in a few suggestions. What I'd really like to find is a ball that will handle lighter volumes than the core of my Lane #1 arsenal (Gold Nugget/Tsunami H20/Enriched Uranium/Supernova XP) without being so da*n oil-allergic if I happen to tug it. I've got a Dirty Bomb drilled for that purpose but I don't seem to match up that great with the bomb core.
Jess