Rankin Camilleri and Vicky Camilleri were the respective male and female winners of this year's Gold Cup qualifying tournament held at the Eden SuperBowl, and thus earned the right to represent Malta in the XXIX European Gold Cup held in the Brunit Bowling centre in Rome. A total of 21 European countries participated between the 16 - 21 May, and the tournament which included a Singles event (male and female divisions), as well as a Mixed Doubles event. Once again Malta performed very well, managing to bronze in the doubles competition, while Vicky Camilleri's individual performance earned her a place in the penultimate round-robin stages.

The Doubles was the first competition of the tournament with all teams playing six games, the total cumulative pinfall of which would decide the medal classification. Our bowlers, not normally accustomed to playing together as a team, played very well together with Rankin playing a fine 198.6 average for a 1192 total. Vicky managed a 973 scratch, which was bolstered to 1033 by her individual handicap of ten pins per game, meaning the team total was a great 2225 pins. That was enough to earn the pair their bronze medals, behind the team from Belarus who took second place by just 30 pins (2255 total), while Gold went to the English pairing of Alex Christfi and Angie Brown on 2298 pins.

This was a great start for the Maltese bowlers, and yet another international honour for their sport and country.

All bowlers played eighteen games in the singles competition, with the top eight from each division then going on to play in a Round Robin to decide the top three who would then go head-to-head in turn in the step-ladder final. Rankin Camilleri found the going tough against strong competition in the male division. He opened well with a 231 in his first game, but that was cancelled out by lows of 166, 167 and a 144 in the first 6-game session. He never topped 200 during the next six where he scored 993 (2078 after 12gms, 173.1 ave) and then improved slightly with a 1028 in the third set.

This left Rankin back in a disappointing 18th place with a grand total of 3106 pins (172.5 ave), while the event was won by Frenchman Philippe Binetruy, with Russia's Konstantin Kokorin in second and Constantinou Costakis of Cyprus claiming the bronze medal.

The ladies' competition saw very good results for Malta's Vicky Camilleri, whose game has shown great improvement of late. She shot a 1093 scratch total in her first session (1153 gross) which featured a high of 204, and a respectable 167 low game. At that point Vicky's handicap was re-rated to 6 pins per game and she went on to a 990 total in session two (1026 gross), improving slightly to a 1026 (1062) in session three, to give her a 3241 event tally. This placed Camilleri in eighth place, thus securing a place in the round-robin by, incredibly, a single pin ahead of France's Emilie Degoud on 3240 pins in ninth. The gold medal was clinched by Angie Brown (England), silver by Cypriot Elena Lazarou and bronze by Elena Milkovitch fron Russia.

Eighth turned out to be our girl's final placing after her seven round-robin matches in which apart from the pins scored, bonus points would also be awarded for wins, draws and 200+ games. Camilleri only managed one win against the Russian with an excellent 205 against a 168 from Milkovitch. Nevertheless, eight place amongst this formidable field of athletes is an achievement Vicky can be rightly proud of.

Thanks go to the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association, The Eden SuperBowl, and the MOC for their support of our local tenpin bowlers, who were accompanied by coach Pierre German for the Gold Cup.