The New Year sees the start of the new season of the Middlesea Valletta Life National League at the Eden SuperBowl, St. Julian’s, and after the first two fixtures it is Aercomms who are the early leaders of Division I after two successive victories, and in spite of dropping two points against Pharmavet. Last season’s Champions Fina First were dealt an early blow in the form of a week one defeat at the hands of Inlusion, but moved up to third place with a full point victory over HSBC in the flowing match. Royal Shock currently hold the second spot at this very early stage in the title race.

Week One - Great start for Inlusion against Champs

Inlusion have just been promoted to the top flight as Div II Champions, and their first fixture could not have been a more daunting one, against none other than League Champs Fina First. The match started well for the Div I newcomers, who won game one 743-741 for the early points. Fina then levelled it with a 714-761 equaliser in game two to take an advantage of 45 pins into game three, but then stumbled to a low 670 game against a 717 winner from Inlusion, giving the latter the series points by just two pins (2174-2172), and the match with a 6-2 score line. Ramon Casha (Inlusion), 604. Mark Spiteri (Fina First), 591.

Aercomms shot the team series of week one as they tore apart Ramis with an 8-0 thrashing. They took the opener with a huge 868-716 win, then doubled their lead with closer 736-709 second game victory. They were high again in game three which they won 866-731 to make sure of the 100% win. Paul Baldacchino (Aercomms), 645. John Balani (Ramis), 507.

HSBC picked up the only other full point win of the opening week, opponents The Clan starting their first season in Div I with a heavy defeat. The latter were never really in with a chance as HSBC steamrolled them with game scores of 809-663, 848-799, 735-630 to take the second spot behind Aercomms. Helenio Grech (HSBC), 625. Stephen Larman (The Clan), 530.

Other week one matches saw a six point victory for Royal Shock against Turu's Knights (ex-QF Ltd), and a four-all draw between Pharmavet and Globalair Travel (ex-Union Capital).

Bowlers of the Week:

Paul Baldacchino (Aercomms), 645, Melissa Swift (Pharmavet), 576

Week Two - Full pints for Fina First, Turu’s Knights

Fina First got over their week one cold start with a 0-8 hammering of HSBC in week two. Fina put in a formidable 2532 series as they ripped into their opponents with game wins of 769-832, 782-861 and 689-839. HSBC’s tally of 2240 was certainly no disgrace, rather it was just a case of them coming up against the wrong opponents on the night. Fina youngster Justin Caruana Scicluna set the pace for the season s high series award with a fantastic 652 set, while there was a 568 for HSBC’s Bertram Vella.

Turu’s Knights also scooped an 0-8 victory to the detriment of The Clan who are yet to score a single point in their debut season. The Knights drew first blood with a 670-726 game one win, and then made it 0-4 with a 628-741 result in game two. A narrower game three victory of 726-739 completed the whitewash for Turu’s Knights to move into fourth place while the losers are firmly rooted to the bottom of the classification.

Leaders Aercomms stayed on top after their 2-6 win against Pharmavet. While they lost the first of the set by just six pins, 738-732, they bounced back to draw level with a comfortable 706-788 win in game two. Aercomms clinched the decider 687-745 to take the series by 134 pins (2131-2265). Kenneth Arpa (Aercomms), 609. Franco Ricci (Pharmavet) 529.

Royal Shock also picked up six points in their match against Inlusion. They won game one 666-741 before Inlusion made it two-all with their 753-680 equalizer. The match fell to Royal Shock thanks to their 788-832 game three win. David Fenech (Royal Shock), 567. Ramon Casha (Inlusion), 574.

The final match of Globalair Travel vs Ramis ended in a four-all draw, the games progressing 715-708, 739-713 and 755-826 giving Ramis the series points by some 38 pins (2209-2247). Neil Sullivan, Malcolm Pace (Globalair), both on 565. Benny Hili (Ramis), 554.

Bowlers of the Week:

Justin Caruana Scicluna (Fina First), 652; Sue Abela (Fina First), 640

Standings

Aercomms - 14, Royal Shock - 12, Fina First - 10, Turu’s Knights - 10, HSBC - 8, Globalair Travel - 8, Inlusion - 8, Pharmavet - 6, Ramis - 4, The Clan – 0

National Sporting Contest

National Sporting Contests winners to be announced this evening

The winners of the national sporting contests, organised by the Sportswriters Association, will be announced this evening.

The finals night is being held this evening at the Westin Dragonara Resort in St Julian’s.

The association is this year rewarding one of its veteran members for his contribution to sports journalism in the past. In the previous editions, since this award was established, the winners were Charles Fava, Lewis Portelli and Benny Pace.

This year the association will also be rewarding that association which, during 2007, organized an international activity which had an outstanding success. In the past, the awards went as follows:

2003, 10th Games for European Small Nations; 2004, FISEC Games; 2005 Rolex Middle Sea Race and 2006 Triathlon international championships.

The finalists for the 2007 national sporting awards, from among whom the winners will be announced tonight, are:

Sportsman of the Year: Gary Curmi (Drag Racing); Darren Gilford (athletics); Michael Mifsud (Football), Nikolai Portelli (athletics); Mark Spiteri (Tenpin Bowling).

Sportswoman of the Year: Sue Abela (Tenpin Bowling), Charlene Attard (Athletics), Marcon Bezzina (Judo), Joanne Camilleri (Judo), Francesca Xuereb (Athletics).

Team of the Year: Basketball women’s U-18 team; Football men's national team; Rugby - women's national team; Snooker Masters national team; Squash women’s national team.

Official of the Year: Terry Camilleri (Snooker); Anthony Chircop (Athletics), Anthony Debono (Horse-racing), Marvic Micallef (Volleyball), Dr Joseph Mifsud (Football).

U-17 athlete: Benji Borg (Sailing), Sean Borg (Sailing), Colette Sultana (Squash), Francesca Xuereb (Athletics), Martina Xuereb (Athletics).

Special Olympics recognition: Sylvana Cassar, Nathalie Galea, Chris Gregory, Bryan Muscat, Alexia Wetz.