The Malta Tenpin Bowling Association has held a qualifying tournament at the Eden SuperBowl to decide the team to represent Malta in this year’s Mediterranean Challenge Cup.
The successful athletes were Mark Spiteri and Brian Farrugia in the male division, with Sue Abela and Joanna Attard qualifying from the ladies competition. The foursome will travel to Mercin, Turkey later this month to compete in the 10th edition of this international event to be held between 27 March and 1 April.
The qualifiers were played on a total of 24 games over three sessions, a very simple format in which the total pinfall would govern the two qualifiers from each division.
Men’s Division
Brian Farrugia led the men’s field from the start, playing to a solid 209 average, slightly ahead of Kenneth Arpa and Dennis Mercieca after eight games, while Mark Spiteri lay in fourth place.
Spiteri then had a much better second session, shooting high games of 235, 248 and a great 265 to push him up to second place, while Farrugia held onto the top spot with another consistent, strong performance. Rankin Camilleri shot up the field to third place and Dennis Mercieca was fourth after his sixteen games.
The final set of eight games saw Mark Spiteri power into first place to win the men’s event, finishing on a great 5,025 total (209.3 ave) and again bowling some great games of 246, 243, 244, 231 and 232.
Brian Farrugia claimed the second qualification spot, shooting a total of 4848 pins (202 ave), and pipping Dennis Mercieca into third place by just 45 pins. Kenneth Arpa finished fourth on 4800, a straight 200 game average.
Ladies Division
Sue Abela is known as the ‘Queen of the Mediterranean’ in the tenpin bowling world, and has played a major part in putting Malta right at the top of the medals table during the nine year history of the Mediterranean Challenge Cup. Nobody doubted that she would figure among the top two in the ladies event, and indeed she won it convincingly as expected.
Abela’s competitors could only look on in awe as she put in a fantastic performance from the very start of the tournament, shooting an amazing 286 among her eight initial games, along with other highs of 234, 240, 237, 236 and 221, achieving and eight game total of 1825 (228.1 average).
She cruised through the second and third sessions, dipping below the 200 mark just five times over her 24 games, and won the tournament with a 5294 tally (220.5 average).
Second place was claimed by Joanna Attard, who actually finished day one in fourth place behind Abela, Doris Camilleri in second and Lorraine Casha in third. Attard improved during the second session thanks to six 200+ games, including a good 240 effort, moving up to second place.
That was where she would stay, finishing the tournament on 4,620 pins for a very good 192.5 game average. Lorraine Casha took third place while Doris Camilleri finished fourth.
The Mediterranean Challenge Cup consists of varied events, namely men’s and ladies’ Singles and Doubles events, Team of Four, and culminates in the men’s and ladies’ Masters’ Finals which will be contested by the top performers resulting from the other events. Malta last hosted the Mediterranean Challenge Cup in 2005 as part of the MTBA’s 30th Anniversary celebrations.