Kim Thorsgaard Jensen
The organizer of Stop 07 in the EBT 2018, the VI Brunswick Madrid Challenge, has announced the period of the tournament to be shortened by one day.
The tournament, which is conducted in Bowling Charmatin, will be conducted in the period of 1-8 July instead of 30 June – 8 July.
The organizer also announces a change in the format as follows:
48 athletes will qualify to the final steps, of which the 16 highest ranked from the general qualification will qualify directly to Step 2 of the final.
32 athletes will play 6 games in the final step 1, starting from scratch.
Top 16 from the qualification will be joined by Top 16 from the final step 1. The 32 athletes will bowl best of 3 games matches in 3 elimination rounds in the final step 2, 3 and 4, which will reduce the number of athletes to 4.
The tournament is concluded with two one game semi-finals and a one game final in step 5-6.
Click here to see the EBT 2018 Calendar.
Anthony Simonsen from USA won the jubilee edition of the Irish Open, which were conducted in Leisureplex Stillorgan as the 30th Irish Open Championships in association with Storm.
The tournament, which appeared in the European Bowling Tour 2018 as Stop 03, was conducted on 14-21 January 2018 in Dublin
It was Anthony Simonsen’s first EBT Title and his first highest ranked position.
Nicole Sanders from the Netherlands, who left the tournament in the Quarter Final, became the highest ranked in the women’s division for the 9th time in her career.
189 athletes had found their way to Dublin to compete for the 62 spots available for the final steps of the tournament.
Step 1 included 54 bowlers playing 3 games starting from scratch, Step 2 included 32 bowlers playing 3 games starting from scratch and Step 3 included 16 bowlers playing 2 games matches in a pyramid system including Eighth Finals, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and a Final.
The outcome of the three last matches became as follows:
Semi Final 1
Barry Foley, Ireland: 212 + 226 = 438
Edwin van Aarle, The Netherlands: 214 + 187 = 401
Semi Final 2
Anthony Simonsen, USA: 259 + 205 = 464
Stephen Joyce, Ireland: 226 + 181 = 407
Final
Anthony Simonsen, USA: 257 + 203 = 460
Barry Foley, Ireland: 205 + 223 = 428
Sin Li Jane from Malaysia is leading the women’s division of the tour with 239 points in front of her fellow countrywomen Shalin Zulkifli at position 2 with 208 points and Daria Pajak from Poland at position 3 with 195 points.
Jesper Svensson from Sweden is leading the men’s division of the tour with 270 points in front of Rafiq Ismail from Malaysia at position 2 with 260 points and Anthony Simonsen from USA at position 3 with 219 points.
Click here to see the ranking in the Women’s Division
Click here to see the ranking in the Men’s Division
The European Bowling Tour has started in a thru fireworks of entries and wonderfully good bowling as never seen before.
Last week the debuting AIK International Tournament Powered by Track entered the tour with not less than 455 athletes taking part, playing as much as 1.060 entries.
These already very high numbers were beaten by Brunswick Ballmaster Open, at tournament appearing in the tour for the 19th consecutive time out of 19 possible. Ballmaster seconded the numbers by 550 athletes, which is a new record for the tour. The 550 athletes played as much as 1.129 entries, which is the second highest ever in the tour.
It gives a total of 1.005 athletes in the first two stops, playing as much as 2.189 entries.
Click here to see a new tour statistic presenting the tournaments having had 400 or more athletes taking part and having had 1.000 entries or more since year 2000.
In Helsinki 36 athletes continued to the first step of the final, which were athletes positioned 13-40 from the general standing, top 3 from a separate standing of Squad 1-8, top 2 from a separate standing of Squad 9-10 and top 3 from the Desperado Squad. The 36 athletes played 6 games Saturday night starting from scratch.
Step 2 of the final included athletes positioned 1-12 from the general standing combined with top 24 from step 1. The 36 athletes played 8 games Sunday morning starting from scratch.
Top 16 from the final step 2 was divided in two groups of 8 athletes, each playing 7 one game Round Robin matches with 30 bonus points for a won match and 15 bonus points for a tied.
Everything were added together: the 8 games in the final step 2 + the 7 Round Robin games + Round Robin bonus + women’s handicap to determine the two best athletes from each group to be qualified for the Semi Finals in the Final step 4 of the tournament.
Group 1: The two highest after 15 games plus various bonuses:
1. 3731: Cherie Tan, Singapore
2. 3670: Sin Li Jane, Malaysia
Group 2: The two highest after 15 games plus various bonuses:
1. 3640: Bill O’Neill, USA
2. 3599: Kimmo Lehtonen, inland
The outcome of the matches in the final step 4 and 5 became as follows:
Semi Final 1
Bill O’Neill, USA: 238
Sin Li Jane, Malaysia: 247
Semi Final 2
Cherie Tan, Singapore: 211
Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland: 268
The Final
Sin Li Jane, Malaysia: 277
Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland: 173
Sin Li Jane won her second title in the European Bowling tour and was highest ranked in the women‘s division for the 4th time in her career.
Mr. Kimmo “Ballmaster” Lehtonen is a legend in the tournament. Not only was he the organizer in a number of years, when the tournament at a moment needed a fresh investment. Kimmo also won the tournament in 2002 and in 2007, and in addition Kimmo have numerous high positions in the tournament over the years.
Sin Li Jane from Malaysia is leading the women’s division of the tour with 239 points in front of her fellow countrywomen Shalin Zulkifli at position 2 with 208 points and Bernice Lim from Singapore at position 3 with 194 points.
The former tour winner Jesper Svensson from Sweden is leading the men’s division of the tour with 270 points in front of Rafiq Ismail from Malaysia at position 2 with 260 points and Kimmo Lehtonen from Finland at position 3 with 200 points.
Click here to see the ranking in the Women’s Division
Click here to see the ranking in the Men’s Division
With not less than 455 attending athletes, playing as much as 1.060 entries, the Stockholm based tournament, AIK International Tournament Powered by Track, got a fantastic first time appearance in the European Bowling Tour.
1.060 entries have only been passed twice in the entire history of the European Bowling Tour, both from 2017, where Brunswick Euro Challenge in Munich had 1.197 entries and Lucky Larsen Masters in Malmoe had 1.087 entries.
Concerning the number of athletes, the 455 attending athletes in Stockholm is the 7th best number in the tour history, matched precisely by last year’s Lucky Larsen Masters.
The tournament was attended by a bigger contingent of bowlers from Team Singapore and Team Malaysia, who were accompanied by top bowlers from USA, Canada, a lot of European top bowlers and not least a lot of local Swedish stars. All in all a World class field of top bowlers at the lanes of Bowl-O-Rama in Stockholm early January 2018.
The tournament offered a number of build in sub-competitions (the so called Gateways) and a Semi Final Saturday evening; a format which was well-received by a wide range of bowlers attending the tournament in addition to the many top bowlers from around the World.
The second last final step included 8 athletes playing 4 games, with scores added to the already played 10 games from the two foregoing final steps.
The 8 athletes ended their 14 games performance as follows:
1. Jesper Svensson, Sweden: 3397
2. Bernice Lim, Singapore: 3331
3. Shalin Zulkifli, Malaysia: 3297
4. Rafiq Ismail, Malaysia: 3251
5. Niclas Lindholm, Sweden: 3237
6. Daria Pajak, Poland: 3213
7. Ghislaine Sigter van der Tol, Netherlands: 3155
8. Filip Wilhelmsson, Sweden: 3122
Finally top 3 concluded the tournaments with two one game stepladder matches as follows:
Match 1: Bernice Lim vs. Shalin Zulkifli: 226 vs. 220
Match 2: Jesper Svensson vs. Bernice Lim: 233 vs. 240
Jesper Svensson, who is leading the men’s division of the European Bowling Tour 20128, was highest ranked for the 9th time in his career.
Bernice Lim, who is leading the women’s division of the European Bowling Tour 20128, was highest ranked for the 1st time in his career and it was indeed her first EBT Title.
Click here to see the ranking in the Women’s Division
Click here to see the ranking in the Men’s Division