Three from the Team Malta foursome have managed to make the Masters stages in the Commonwealth Championships III which are ongoing in Melbourne, Australia, where 16 Commonwealth countries are competing for the honours.

Our qualifiers are Sue Abela and Melissa Anastasi who qualified in respective seventh and 12th positions, while Ray Falzon Reale made the men’s cut in 12th place. Brian Farrugia finished in 21st place overall.

The Masters round is competed by the top 12. All Events qualifiers, meaning that all individual scores from the individual, doubles and team events are added together to form the final All Events classification to decide the Masters qualifiers. Then after 12 games in each Masters division, the top three will then play in the stepladder final stage.

Ray Falzon Reale has bowled his initial six Masters games, played to a round-robin format with bonus points given for winning games. Ray faced tougher scoring opposition than any of the other qualifiers, only managing two match wins, but bowling to a blistering 215.1 average which saw him shoot up from 12th to third place. All fingers are crossed for Ray ‘Mr. 300’ to keep up the pace in tomorrow’s second session, to book his place in the all-important final.

Malta were very unlucky not to pick up more medals in the four-bowler Team event, just being pipped into fourth place. The team played well during the six-game series, but the players will be kicking themselves for shooting some rather low games here and there. Ray Falzon Reale was our top performer in this event, managing a great 1282 individual series (213.7 ave).

The team finished on 4,757 pins, just 139 down on third placed Team England, while the silver medals were claimed by Australia and the event was won by the Canadian foursome.

The Maltese team are supported by the MTBA, KMS and also the MOC. The Eden Leisure Group sponsors the MTBA’s National Coaching Scheme, which has facilitated adequate preparation for team Malta prior to these Championships.