Parker Bohn III, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard crack the top 10 in Brunswick Euro Challenge

03/10/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #5

North American and Malaysian bowlers dominate Qualifying Squad 7

2010EBT05ParkerBohn3.jpg2010EBT05AdrianAng.jpg32-time PBA champion Parker Bohn III (pictured left) and 20-time PWBA champion Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, United States, cracked the top 10 in the overall qualifying standings of the 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge in their first attempt Tuesday night at Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France. Squad 7 was dominated by North American and Malaysian bowlers, who occupied the first ten places.

Bohn, a 2-time PBA Player of the Year (1999, 2001-02) and PBA and USBC Hall of Famer, sandwiched low games of 213 and 214 between four 250+ games (258, 252, 256, 258) for 1451 pinfall total and an average of 241.83 for six games to move into fourth place.

Adrian Ang (right), Malaysia, topped Bohn by 19 pins for the squad lead en route to overtake 3rd place with 1470 (245.00) including high games of 269 and 279. Nico Joris, Belgium, held on to the lead with 1518. Yoan Alix, France remained in second place with 1495.

2010EBT05CarolynDorinBallard2.jpg2008CTBCMarkBuffa2.jpgDorin-Ballard, two-time Woman Bowler of the Year and USBC Hall of Famer, used a high game of 278 for a 1350 series and added 48 pins handicap to become the top-ranked woman in the field of 177 players in 9th place with 1398. Marie Gauton, France, who previously held hat position, is just one pin and one place behind with 1397.

Joining Bohn and Dorin-Ballard in the top 10 from Squad 7 were Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, and Mark Buffa (right), Canada. Zulkifli had high games of 278 and 269 to move into 6th place with 1411. Buffa had six games between 219 and 247 to overtake 8th place with 1401.

Rounding out the top 10 in Squad 7 were five members of the Malaysian national team, Mohd Nur Aiman (12th, 1387), Syafiq Ridhwan (18th, 1353), Shalin Zulkifli (20th, 1349), Aaron Kong (24th, 1341) and Zandra Aziela (38th, 1307).

With 16 qualifying squads to go, Johnny Spil, Netherlands, holds the 52nd and last spot to advance to the finals with 1278 and an average of 213.00. In 2009, the cutoff number was 1328.

Qualifying continues on Wednesday, March 10, with Squads 8 and9 scheduled for 5 and 9 p.m. CET.

2010EBT05BECLogo.jpg The Brunswick Euro Challenge will be held from March 5-14, 2010 at 28-laner Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin near Paris, France. The tournament is the fifth event of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Gold" tournaments.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled, the 2010 EBT Tour features 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 7 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

Players will compete for total prize money of 90,000 Euro (currently about US$123,250), which includes special prizes for "Women" and "B Bowlers". The tournament winner will receive the 13.000 Euro top prize.

200910PBA11MikeFagan2_small.jpg2009VOMaiGingeJensen_small.jpg There is also a special side event called "300-Game Pot Play". All players who have paid a 50 Euro entry fee in advance and roll a 300 game during the tournament will determine the winner in a one-ball roll-off at the end of the tournament. The winner is guaranteed a minimum of 2,500 Euro.

2-time PBA champion Mike Fagan (left), United States, is the defending champion. The 29-year-old righthander will be targeting to make his third consecutive BEC title match. Mai Ginge Jensen (right), Denmark, finished third last year to win the women ranking.

ValckeBowling.jpg For the third consecutive year, the 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge sponsored by Brunswick Bowling will be organized by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling.

In addition to sponsoring the event, Brunswick will be conducting seminar and training sessions for bowlers, coaches, center mechanics, center managers and proprietors. Click on the link to view the complete Seminar Schedule (pdf file).

Qualifying will run through Saturday, March 13, with the final qualifying squad 23 scheduled for 8 p.m. and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad at 11 p.m.

The 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge will be contested on a 39 feet long sport pattern of medium difficulty (MS Excel file).

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 14. The top 16 players will receive one bye and will seeded 1-16 in Round 2.

The following 48 players will qualify for Round 1:
  • Players positioned 17th-52nd in qualifying
  • the top 6 from a separate standing for the squads 1-5 conducted March 5-7, who are not among the top 52
  • the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

Those 48 will bowl six games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16, who will meet the top 16 qualifiers in the first match play round. Match play is best-of-three games single-elimination. The No. 1 seed will take on No. 32, No. 2 bowls No. 31, etc.

The field will be cut to 16, 8 and then four, who will determine the champion in a stepladder final.

Eurosport2Logo_mini.jpgThe stepladder finals of the 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge will be broadcasted live on Eurosport 2 Sunday, March 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. CET. Additional to the live broadcast, Eurosport 2 will air at least two more re-broadcasts in the weeks following the live coverage. Eurosport Asia-Pacific will also run the BEC 2010 final several times.

Due to TV requirements the schedule for Sunday, March 14, was adjusted to the following:
07:45 Final Round 1
11:00 Lane Maintenance
11:30 Final Round 2
14:00 Final Round 3
15:15 Final Round 5
16:30 Lane Maintenance
16: 55 Practice for Stepladder final
17:00-18:25 Final Round 5
18:25 TV Award Ceremony
18:30 300-Game Play Pot Roll Off
18:45 Awards Ceremony

BowlingdigitalBanner.gif BowlingdigitalFlavioCuvaBeatGrauwiler_small.jpg Once again Bowlingdigital will cover the event live (commencing Thursday March 11) from Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin with results and updates after each round plus our much-anticipated high definition videos produced by Flavio Cuva and high quality photos by Beat Grauwiler (l-r).

Please use the left menu bar to get more information about format, schedule and prize money.

Click here to review Bowlingdigital's Live Coverage from the 2009 Brunswick Euro Challenge or click here to go straight to the video section. You will find more videos here.

 


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Qualifying Standings after Squad 7

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