Round two of the Middlesea Valletta Life National League is proving to be the highest scoring in the history of the league, as the agreeable lane oil pattern used serves to enhance the scoring pace of many top flight bowlers. Ramis smashed their own 1-week old record as they took apart Turu’s Knights in an 8-0 victory, while there were other high scoring victories for Globalair against Gladiators (2-6), Fina against Royal Shock (6-2), and PharmaVet over HSBC (8-0). The fixture The Clan vs okmalta.com was postponed to a later date.

Ramis are now two points clear at the top of Division I after their 8-0 thrashing of Turu’s Knights, but it wasn’t so much the one sided score line that stole the show, but rather their brand new record for a team series thanks to their formidable 2,850 tally.

Incredibly the league record they topped had been previously set by them, just one week earlier in Ramis’ week twelve win over Gladiators.

The unlucky Knights actually rolled the second best series of the week (2573) but were simply up against the wrong opponents on the night, as the gargantuan games fell 937-875, 986-815, 927-883 all in favour of their opponents. Ramis veteran Paul Baldacchino also took the highest series to date, rolling an inspired 772 tally (279-257-236). Ryan Grech (Turu’s Knights) 710. (See separate feature on Ramis’ achievements).

Globalair dropped two pins in their win against Gladiators this week, losing their joint league lead as a result. They opened strongly with a 725-893 opening win, and then went four points ahead thanks to a thrilling 862-871 game two victory. Game three saw Globalair drop to a 764 score, which allowed the Gladiators back in to bag a two point share with their 794 effort. Neil Sullivan (Globalair), 645. Nikolai Borg (Gladiators), 625.

Fina too scored well this week, registering a 2563 total, but were let down by a lower second game which meant opponents Royal Shock were also able to pick of a quarter share of the spoils in the eventual 6-2 score line. Fina easily took the opener 855-697, but then suffered an extremely narrow game two defeat, as Royal Shock just clinched it 760-762. Fina then bounced back to take game three in style (948-756) and so make sure of the match points. Justin Caruana Scicluna (Fina), 666. Joe Cassar (Royal Shock), 590.

Sixth placed PharmaVet picked up the points in the second 8-0 win of the week, relegation favourites HSBC ending up on the losing end of the result. The 100% victory seldom looked in any doubt as the series began with an 816-714 PharmaVet win, which was quickly backed up by a 767-697 result in the second of the set. PharmaVet made sure of all eight points with a final 814-761 win in game three. Melissa Swift (PharmaVet), 662, female bowler of the week. Sammy Borg (HSBC), 578.

Bowlers of the Week

Paul Baldacchino (Ramis), 772; Melissa Swift (PharmaVet), 662

Standings – Div. I, Week 13

Ramis-84, Globalair-82, Fina-68 (match in hand), okmalta.com-68 (match in hand), Royal Shock-48, PharmaVet-48, Turu’s Knights-42, Gladiators-30, The Clan-24 (match in hand), HSBC-10 (match in hand)

Standings – Div. II, Week 12

Middlesea-60, Salitos-60, Malta Int. Airport-56, J Grima & Co-56, Spare Me Plz-54, Supreme-48, Blitzkrieg-44, Bank of Valletta-42, 4 Play-28, Atlas Insurance-24