TOURNAMENT NOTES:

Dateline Thursday, May 4:

The lane conditioning here at the Cozmo Bowl on the outskirts of Kuwait City certainly seem to suit many of the international competitors, especially the Finns, for each of the quartet from Helsinki and beyond hit that magic 300 on Wednesday.

Nine perfect games have been hit to date. From the Finns - (as pictured, left to right) Pasi Uotila, Jouni Helminen, Jari Ratia and Osku Palermaa. This elite group was joined by Mads Sandbaekken of Norway.

Then the English came on the scene as Stuart Williams and Paul Moor each bagged those twelve strikes.

Two more perfectos came on Thursday morning when the Malaysian group took to the lanes. Daniel Lim and Ben Heng brought the total to nine, but there are still a couple of days to go.

Pic: Daniel Lim and Ben Heng of Malaysia celebrate their perfect games.

Friday, May 5:
'Cinco de Mayo' for some!
Well, it's 10am right now and the first squad of the day has also seen the first 300 of the day and the tenth overall, coming from the talented hands of Ali Mubarak of Qatar. Looking across the lanes right now it doesn't look as though another one is currently in the offing.

We welcome a new name to the top of the leader board, all the more special as it is Kuwaiti national team bowler Khaled Al-Dubyan (pictured), 19, still a high school student.

Ninth in last year's Kuwait Open, Khaled is determined to do better this year? Win it? "Well, maybe," he laughingly replied.

Khaled is certainly building an impressive set of credentials, having bowled a brace of 300 games during his seven year experience.

Saturday, May 6:
Some extraordinary bowling from the start today. The program opened with a roll-off between Malaysia's Zandra Aziela and Wendy Chai who tied for tenth place in the qualifiers. That was won by Aziela, 255-191.

Then the illustrious group of 12, as the ten were fortified by the addition of two local players, bowled their first four of eight games, playing the opening set on long oil.

The high game on this set was 258 and there were three of them - one each from Shalin Zulkifli and Esther Cheah of Malaysia and Indonesian star Putty Armein.

But the star of the morning show was Martina Beckel of Germany (pictured), hitting 958 over her four-game block (229, 227, 247, 255).

Four of the ladies finished their first set with scores over 900 - following Beckel's 958 came two Malaysian's, Esther Cheah and Shalin Zulkifli, tied on 947, then Putty Armein 940.

Meanwhile, filling in the break between squads, Malaysian coaches Chris Batson (left) and Bill Rowe demonstrated their skills on the pool table.

Unfortunately, the standard of play from neither of the pair would be high enough for their selection to represent their original country or zone in the prestigious annual Mosconi Cup, an event televised and shown around the world.

So it's now a case of going back to the day job.

Anyway, the two coaches did a great job as they guided two Malaysians into the ladies' stepladder final. The irrepressible Shalin Zulkifli (pictured) topped the table as number one seed and young Esther Cheah took fourth place.

Previous frontrunner Martina Beckel, from Frankfurt, Germany dropped back into second place and Putty Armein of Jakarta, Indonesia placed third.

The lithe blond Britt Brondsted from Denmark just missed out on a stepladder place by just under 50 pins to take the dreaded fifth spot.

Here we go again! Perfect game number 11 shot in the second game of the men's top 32 this afternoon by Saeed al Hajri of Qatar, rolled on lanes 1 and 2 where the lowest score amongst the four players was 245. and this is supposed to be the low scoring short-oil condition. What's going to happen when they get on the long pattern for their second five-game block. The mind boggles at the thought.

The 32 male group, finishers 4-36 in qualifying, rolled off their ten games, five on each of long and short oil, and the squad leader was Ahmed Al Mohandi of Qatar. He and Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong and Zulmazran Zulkifli of Malaysia have the enviably position of now being seeded into the round of 16 where they will play the best of five game matches, head to head.
Al Mohandi (pictured) shot 1244 on the five games of short oil and just 1074 on the long, but his total of 2318 put him 34 pins ahead of Hong in the final standings. He was truly helped on his way by a fine 288 in his third game of the day on the short stuff.
Qatari Al Hajri's 300 game brought him up to fifth place and five of the six Qataris made the cut.
Despite a lowly 203 in his last game, Daniel Lim of Malaysia squeezed into the qualifiers, beating Ahmed Shaheen, one of the tournament favorites by just two pins for last place and finishing with a 209.3 average.
Last year there were 13 perfectos bowled. We're just two shy of that figure right now but Sunday's packed schedule could see that 'lucky for some' figure exceeded.
As they say, watch this space.

Sunday, May 7:

Just a few moments between squads for a chat. Kuwait Open and Kuwait national coach Andrew Frawley (left) discusses standings and conditions with Paul Delany and Finns Pasi Uotila and Jari Ratia.
Delany is also a coach in Kuwait, passing on some of his high international skills to the under-23 groups in this gulf nation.
The progressive Kuwait Bowling Federation was formed in 2002 and the Cozmo Bowling Center, host to the Open and the upcoming World Ranking Masters, has been open for just over two years.

Perfecto number 12 came this morning in the fifth game of the opening squad, the second game on short oil, when local player Rakan Al Amiri hit his twelve strikes in front of the TV cameras and shown live across the Gulf states.
That 300 brought him up from eighth place in the standings, the level of the cut, to runner-up to Ali Mubarak of Qatar. Just one game to go before the cut to eight.
Just one more 300 game and last year's total of 13 in the Kuwait Open will be equalled. Odds are short on that total being exceeded.
But, perhaps sadly, it stayed at 12.

The victory picture with the presentation party and the very happy champions and runners-up. Center, with Sheikh Talal, president of the Kuwait Bowling Federation and also of the Asian Bowling Federation, are men's champion Jason Belmonte and runner-up Osku Palermaa. Ladies, left to right, are Shalin Zulkifli, Martina Beckel and Esther Cheah.

A strikefest of almost gargantuan proportions was enjoyed by those lucky enough to have fought their way through intense competition and enjoy the final rounds of this edition of the Kuwait Open on Sunday.
A little gauche to say it, maybe, but the finals of both men's and ladies divisions came to be much better than had the event been scripted by some fairytale author.
The final ball of the battle for the title between Jason Belmonte and Osku Palermaa, both expert exponents of the unique two-handed bowling ball delivery, will long be remembered. Belmonte had posted 238 and Palermaa could tie that score if he struck out in the tenth frame. First ball - strike. Second ball - strike. The pressure was intense for that final throw and the lithe Finn took a re-rack, presumably just to ease things a little. But the fickle finger of fate decided that the title should go 'down under' as Palermaa's final ball went well wide and left five pins standing as a 'washout'. Honors Belmonte, 238-233.
But the local spectators and other competitors showed their appreciation of an exciting finale and gave both players a standing ovation for their expertise.
Belmonte bagged his final place by taking out local player Fadhel Al Mousawi of Kuwait, 275-213, and Palermaa ousted burly Ahmed Al Mohandi of Qatar, 239-193.
The ladies' final was played in the more usual stepladder style and the first match featured Esther Cheah of Malaysia against Putty Armein of Indonesia. The 16-year-old Malaysian advanced to the second rung of the ladder, 227-204. Once again, Cheah kept her winning ways to defeat German veteran Martina Beckel, 269-257.
The title match was against fellow countrywoman, the ubiquitous Shalin Zulkifli, queen of Asian bowling since the beginning of the new millennium and more. It was youth versus experience and the rub of the green went Zulkifli's way, emerging the victor, 222-184.
The focus shifts on Monday morning to the ABF Tour, where the top 16 Asian men from the standings of the Kuwait Open will play a one-game, head-to-head knockout, with ranking points for the Asian zone at stake.

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For further information, contact Keith Hale: keithhale679@aol.com