Stephanie Said has won the female division of the 2012 TENOVAR Gold Cup, while top Round 1 qualifier Claude Camilleri held on to clinch the title in the men’s competition. The final stages of this popular open tournament were played out at the Eden SuperBowl, starting with a Round Robin stage for the top six bowlers in each category and culminating in the exciting stepladder finals for the eventual top three.
Female Division
Nervous title retention for Said
2011 ladies’ champion Stephanie Said qualified for the penultimate Round Robin stage in the top spot, 210 pins ahead of the field after her twelve Round 1 games, and finished the five game set 297 ahead on 3,494, having won three of her matches to pick up 60 valuable bonus points.
That gave Said an automatic place in the grand final as top seed, and her nearest challenger was Marianne Mula who went through in second place with a 3197 total. Current Ladies Senior Champion Josephine Borg made up the final three with her 3,122 tally, as Liliana Said, Josette Falzon and Marthese Cossai were illuminated in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively.
Josephine Borg prevailed in the single game semi-final, with a 174-200 victory over Marianne Mula, and so went on to face Stephanie Said in the final match.
Here, as the underdog Josephine would need to beat her opponent twice, whereas just one game would be enough for Stephanie to hold on to her 2011 crown. Borg was again a winner in opening game, taking it 174-202 to force the ‘winner takes all’ second game, and so pile the pressure onto her young, talented opponent.
The pace was much closer this time, merely adding more tension to the match, but this time it was Said who made sure of victory, winning it 189-172 to make it two titles in a row.
Male Division
Camilleri claims victory in tight face-off with Peter Mallia
Having had the Round 1 lead snatched from him by Claude Camilleri by a mere three pins (2417-2414), Peter Mallia entered the final day on a revenge mission, his goal being to walk off with the TENOVAR Gold Gup title at the end of play.
All went to plan during the Round Robin, as Mallia picked up four wins from five against only two victories for Camilleri. High games of 212 and 226, plus 80 extra win-bonus points, put Peter back on top on 3,525, ahead of Claude on 3438 and straight into the final match.
The pair were joined by Matthew ‘300’ Cossai in the stepladder, with Mario Ellul, Nikolai Borg and Peter Dunbavin missing out after this stage.
Camilleri made short work of dispatching Cossai in the semi-final, beating him 211-178, and so went on to meet biggest rival, Peter Mallia in the men’s final. Once again the game two decider was required in this match, as second seed Claude picked up a good 167-219 win in game one.
Game two was closer again, but Peter just couldn’t find the shot to crack his opponent, who won it 177-199 for this year’s TENOVAR Gold Cup men’s title.
Stephanie and Claude will now be travelling to Vienna, Austria, to take part in an open tournament of their own choice, with all expenses being covered by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association as part of their prize.