I picked up a Bronze Centaur off eBay about six months ago, used, and once it arrived at my house, I could have strangled the guy who sold it to me. It was beaten up horribly (stock photo on eBay, naturally) and had high game traffic. But I plugged and redrilled it anyway, then resurfaced it to 2000 Abralon plus polish (I think I used Track Clean & Polish but it might have been Storm ReactaShine). I went out to league, threw it a couple of games, didn't like the look and put it up.

So anyway, I'm getting ready for state tournament, and typically a month or so out I'll put back my usual gear so as not to risk damaging it just before tournament. In a classic what-the-heck moment, I pulled the Centaur off the rack and bagged it a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, all I needed to do was track in the ball a little bit and knock some of the polish off it -- last three weeks, I've gone +42, +2 and +70 to my average. I know some people claim all balls carry the same and that differences in visible carry are illusions, but I don't buy it. This ball throws pins around unlike anything I've thrown in awhile.

So now I have a conundrum -- does this ball go in the tournament bag? I think I'd be an idiot to say no. Very easy to make this ball do different things on the lane with just the most minor of hand position changes.

Oh, and what I'm talking about in the subject line: This remains the only company that I have never had a bad experience with. I love Storm and Lane #1 but I've thrown some stuff from both companies that has outright refused to match up to my game. With Visionary, I'm "undefeated" in that category.

Great league ball if you can still find one.

Jess