Bowling – Euro Gold Cup Qualifiers: D’Emanuele still tops Ladies, Burke takes over at top of Men’s division

Malta Independent Sunday, 25 March 2007, 00:00 Last update: about 14 years ago

A further six games were played in Round Two of the National Gold Cup at the Eden SuperBowl, continuing from the previous round in which all participants played twelve games.

Going into the penultimate Round Robin stage, Pamela D’Emanuele has kept her lead on the ladies section, whereas Simon Burke has behind to overtake Philippe Vancell and lead the Men’s competition.

The tournament is a qualifying event for the 31st edition of the European Gold Cup Championships which are to be held in Paphos, Cyprus in May.

Men’s Division

2006 National Gold Cup winner, and also defending European Gold Cup Champion Philippe Vancell saw his hopes of a title retention take a heavy blow, as he dropped from his Rd first place down to fifth place after a poor Rd 2 performance.

He is replaced in the top spot by Simon Burke who played a good set to climb up from fourth place.

Burke rolled a 1,161 series which put him on a two round, eighteen game total of 3475 (193 total), 72 pins better than Justin Caruana Scicluna in second place (3432 pins, 190.6 ave).

Third place is held by Bertram Vella on a tally of 3410 (186.7 ave). Also qualifying for the Round Robin are Aaron Belli, Philippe Vancell and Nathan Brimmer respectively.

Ladies Division

Pam D’Emanuele kept up her earlier pace during her six round two games, rolling a 1062 series to achieve an overall gross total of 3,484 (185.5 scratch ave).

She qualified for the next round with a comfortable 129pin cushion over second place Stephanie Said (3354, 176 ave), while Marthese Cossai stayed third on 3336 (165.6 ave) meaning there was no change in the top three positions in round two.

Also qualifying are Liliana Said in fourth, Josephine Borg in fifth, and sixth placed Tiziana Carannante.

The scores in both the Men’s and Ladies’ categories will now be zeroed for the Round Robin stage, which operates with a system of extra bonus points for game wins or draws.

After that the top three qualifiers in each division will take part in a Stepladder Final do decide the 2007 national Gold Cup Champions.