The 17th Malta Open Championships were concluded last week, where the male and female titles went to England’s Paul Moor, and Bianca Wiekeraad from the Netherlands in two of the best final matches yet to be witnessed at the Eden SuperBowl. Malta’s best representations were from Sue Abela who claimed fourth place in the Ladies’ division, and Mark Spiteri who placed eighth amongst the tough men’s field.

Their were no fewer than five local bowlers who made it through to the Top 18 stage of this year’s Open, namely Rankin Camilleri (13th) and Mark Spiteri (18th) in the Male division, and Sue Abela (5th), Joanna Attard (9th) and Tiziana Carannante (12th) for the ladies.

That was cut to just two representatives, one in each division after the four third round games were completed. Sue Abela notched up a stunning 948 set to take her total after twenty games to 4268 and lift her to third place, while Mark Spiteri rolled a great 939 to make 4326 and improve to eight place, making the cut to the next round (top eight) with just a seven pin advantage over ninth place.

The following, penultimate round was played on a ‘round robin’ basis between the top eight bowlers in each division, adopting a system of extra ‘bonus’ points for game wins, ties and also high games, over seven direct confrontations between the bowlers involved. After that the top four remaining bowlers would face off in the exciting Stepladder Finals.

Spiteri, already happy with the week’s performance, claimed three match wins from seven and picking up more valuable bonuses thanks to no less than six 200+ games, including a high of 245. This helped him improve to seventh place which would be his final tournament position.

Qualifying from the male round robin were England’s Dom Barrett who had led the tournament in impressive style from round one, fellow Englishman Paul Moor (Champion, 2004), Stuart Williams (Champion, 2007) also from England, and finally Belgium’s Chris Vandamme (Champion, 2005 & 2006).

Sue Abela, Champion in 1999 and 2002, made the top four after seven hard round robin games, only winning her first two encounters from seven. Sue was unlucky not to pick up more win bonuses, but bowled well to keep here scores high and qualify in fourth place, beating off a strong challenge from Laurence Gaillard of France who settled for fifth place, having rolled a great set including five game wins and highs of 257, 244 and 238. Qualifying ahead of Abela were England’s Kirsten Penny (Champion 2001), Nicole Sanders and Bianca Wiekeraad, both of the Netherlands.



Abela unlucky in Stepladder

Sue Abela has always proved a tough opponent in one-on-one stepladder finals, and in fairness should have made it through her first game against Nicole Sanders, had it not been for cruel splits in the first two frames, which resulted in costly open frames. Had she managed to spare just one of them, then she would have gone on to the semi-final instead of Sanders who did so with a 226-215 victory.

Nicole faced compatriot and good friend Bianca Wiekeraad next, the latter winning that with a 183-197 score line, meaning she would now face the formidable and in-form Kirsten Penny in the ladies final game.

Penny had long led the female division, and now only needed this last game win her second Malta Open title. She got the better start with a strike, 9-spare, while Wiekeraad had a pair of 9-spares. That early advantage gave Penny a slim lead all the way to frame seven, and then disaster struck in the eighth, as she inexplicably left the tenpin to open the frame. Her opponent struck to take the lead, and eventually the match as well as the title of Malta Open Champion by just two pins, 236 – 238 the final score.



Happy returns for Paul Moor

The men’s stepladder got underway with defending champion Stu Williams taking on 2005/2006 champion Chis Vandamme in the first match.

The big Belgian played with typical determination, beating Williams to the strikes in the first half of the game. He was nine ahead with only frame ten to roll as Stu managed to strike out for a 223 total, turning to start packing away his equipment sure, as were the numerous spectators, that Chris was surely to win the match.

Unbelievably, Chris’s first shot in the final frame produced an horrendous 5pin washout, of which he only managed to pick up five, handing the game to an unbelieving Williams with a shock 219 – 223 game result.

Paul Moor’s last visit to the Malta Open was back in 2004, when he ended up male champion, and his return to the tournament for this year’s edition was a welcome one, his having made the last four in second place.

He now faced Williams in the men’s semi-final, and was ten down after three frames due to Stu’s better opening frames. The pair then matched each other, striking solidly all the way up to frame seven, and then Williams spared the eighth was Moor continued to strike. That was to be the turning point of the match for Moor, who finished with a great 268 against Williams’ 238.

England’s Dom Barrett had been a good 300 pins ahead of the field prior to the stepladder, and would now figure in the men’s final. In spite of his supreme performance during the tournament, he admitted to feeling nervous to Tournament Director Neil Dent just before facing super-cool Paul Moor, saying ‘Paul’s been playing fantastic all day. He’s in awesome form’.

Indeed Moor came out against Barrett firing on all cylinders, racking up a six-pack of strikes for the upper hand. Dom improved with strikes from the fifth to eighth frames to stay within reach, until he faltered with an unlucky split in the ninth against yet another strike from Paul. It was all over bar the shouting, the game ending 211 – 245 for Moor, who claimed his second Malta Open title.

All scores can be seen at www.edensuperbowl.com while reports and other features are online at www.bowlersjournal.com and also www.talktenpin.co.uk thanks to live in-house coverage from Bowling journalists Keith Hale and Dominic Gall.