...and then it became evident why 800 is still bowling's ultimate achievement because getting it ain't easy at all.

First two games were 255 and 288. Two 2-8s and a 3-6-10 in the first game, all made. Second game started ring 10, 10 in a row and then a pocket 7-10 in the fill.

So now I'm looking at needing 257 to ring up 800, and this is where it all went wrong.

Third game starts out strike, then another 2-8. I throw the ball exactly where I aimed with the right speed and turn -- same way I'd made the two in the first game -- and the ball hooked about 5 feet in front of where I expected it to and picked the 2 off. Now I've got to go sheet for the 800.

I'd been watching the other players on our pair and was thinking the lanes were about to make a big change, and on any other night I probably would have switched balls. But when you start off so well it's not easy to make that call on the fly. I struck the next two balls, though, but that may have not been the best thing for me because the next two shots were (1) burned up and hit flat, leaving the 10 -- and I missed it -- and (2) big kick left for a 4-7-10.

So I finally switched balls, and the next thing up is a pocket 7-10. Beautiful. Now I'm open four times in the first seven frames, and finished with a double, super washout (which I made) and a 9-count on the fill for 165. All of a sudden that 808 turned into a 708.

Props to my old Hybrid Dirty Bomb, though, which was the ball I used in the first two games and the start of the third. Should have switched to the Uranium HRG earlier. Nice to get out of this five-week rut I've been in, though, and the 288 is the highest game so far with any L1 equipment I have. I would never have guessed it would have been with a HDB, either. I hated that ball when I first got it until I started playing around with the surface, which tells you that you should NEVER call any ball a dud until you at least make some surface changes.

Jess