TOURNAMENT NOTES
The clans from around the world are gathering at the Cozmo Bowling Center in Salmiya, on the outskirts of Kuwait City, for the sixth edition of the World Ranking Masters (WRM).
Embracing the top eight bowlers from ranking events in the three zones of the Americas, Asia and Europe the WRM showcases the best amateur players in the world.
Intense competition starts on Thursday, May 11, and runs through until Sunday evening when rivalry is forgotten and the players, officials and hosts get together for a farewell party.
Although Kimmo Lehtonen of Finland, the 2005 champion when this prestigious event was so well hosted at the Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Florida, is not here to defend his title, 2005 lady champion, Clara Guerrero of Colombia is back and determined to make the double.
The field of 24 men and 24 women, eight from each of the three zones in each division, will be enhanced by the addition of a male and female player from host nation Kuwait. The eyes of this small nation will be on Khaled Al Dubyan and Nora El Roudan.
Most of the action will be televised live throughout the day and an additional wrap program broadcast later in the evening.

Pics: (left) Andrew Frawley and Paul Delany man the pro shop for the bowling ball check. First customers are Wang Yu Ling of Chinese Taipei and Filipina Liza Del Rosario. Liza also features in the second pic with Delany. Third, Technical Director Rueben Ghiragossian, local technician Aga Cuaorazal and Kegel's John Davis set the lane conditioning machine for the long and short oil patterns that will be used during the competition.
 

A swift but comprehensive Players' Meeting was held Tuesday evening at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel with Tournament Director Danny Santos emcee for the proceedings.
The program opened with the host, Asian Zone and Kuwait Bowling Federation President Sheikh Talal extending a warm and friendly welcome to players, coaches, officials and guests to Kuwait and to wish them an enjoyable and successful visit.
WTBA President Heikki Sarso echoed those sentiments and hoped that this, the sixth edition of the World Ranking Masters, would be one of the best and reflect the true spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship.
Finally, Steve Hontiveros, President of FIQ, thanked Sheikh Talal and the Kuwait Bowling Federation for hosting the Masters. He added that this event showcases the best of bowling to the world and also wished all competitors the very best of luck through the week.
There followed an excellent video presentation, detailing the flags and competitors from the 19 nations in competition this year.
Sarso made the lane draw for the women bowlers and Hontiveros for the men. Jouni Helminen from Finland raised the point that he thought that the lane draw should be made daily to avoid starting on the same pair each day. Santos said he would take this suggestion into consideration.
The announcement that the squads would be made up of three bowlers to a pair for seven pairs of lanes and one set of four, to accommodate the 25 competitors in each division was greeted with rapturous applause as rumor had it that seven pacers would be used to make up the field to 32.
Technical Director Rueben Ghiragossian explained the lane patterns for the event.
The meeting closed with distribution of bowling shirts, I.D. badges and bowling bag tags.
A superb buffet was then enjoyed by all, sponsored yet again by the Kuwait Bowling Federation, an organization that seems to have no bounds with hospitality.
Pics - top: Steve Hontiveros, Sheikh Talal and Heikki Sarso at the players' meeting.
Above: Heikki Sarso making the lane draw.

A spectacular opening ceremony that tops all previous opening ceremonies was thoroughly enjoyed by players, coaches, officials and many local dignitaries on Wednesday evening.
The massive ballroom of the Movenpick Hotel on the outskirts of Kuwait City was converted to a theater style venue with a huge stage converted to a bowling scene, resembling bowling lanes.
The gathering was honoured by the presence of Kuwait Minister of Social Affairs Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, Chairman of the Public authority for Youth and Sport, Dr. Fuad Abdul Samad Al Falah and Sheikh Talal Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah, President of Kuwait Olympic Committee .
Tournament host Sheikh Talal Al Mohammed Al-Sabah, President of the Asian Bowling Federation and Kuwait Bowling Federation for the 6^th World Ranking Masters extended a warm welcome to all.
After the Kuwait national anthem and preliminary speeches of welcome, the 50 competitors came on stage in great style, those from the European zone emerging on a section of the stage which rose to the surface from the depths below, accompanied by a stunning firework display through the mist.
The entertainment came later with local singers and dancers, just to give the international audience a taste of Kuwait color. Then the festivities came to a close with a heart-warming song: Welcome to Kuwait.
Bowling action commenced Thursday morning with the women bowling their first eight games, those on the short oil pattern. The men follow with the same program in the afternoon.

A disappointing situation has arisen as the men take to the lanes for their first eight games on the short oil pattern of the 6^th World Ranking Masters in Kuwait on Thursday afternoon.
Ahmed Shaheen, the Qatari champion, failed to register and take his place on the lanes.
Evidently, there is a disagreement due to the fact that the Qatar Bowling Federation insists that Shaheen competes in a Qatar national shirt and not the official shirt being worn by the rest of the competitors. This is, of course, not acceptable to the organizers of the World Ranking Masters, so we understand that Shaheen has returned home and will no longer take part in the championship.
Tournament manager Danny Santos remarked: “As a tournament official, it s sad that federations could not be more cooperative. Bowling needs a lot of sponsors and without them events such as this would not be possible. This is a small setback to a championship that is such an outstanding success and to have met such high expectations.”

There was a sad end to the World Ranking Masters for Ed Roberts of Boston in the United States. He received the very bad news on Thursday that his son's house had caught fire and been completely destroyed. Luckily, the son, his wife and three children were saved. Ed managed to change his flight to leave on Friday night and is now on his way home. Evidently, the mailman was passing the house, saw the flames in the front room and alerted the family.

One of the most colorful characters at this prestigious event is TV co-commentator Fareed Dashti of Kuwait. As transmissions are live throughout the day, Fareed is always dashing from end to end of the bowling center, grabbing players and personalities for interview. An electronics engineer in his normal day job, a graduate from Algonquin College in Canada, Fareed is well at home in this large international gathering. He normally interviews the players in English and then translates into Arabic. He also has Urdu and Farsi as two other fluent languages. During his younger days, Fareed was an accomplished soccer player, playing at top level in Kuwait. "I wasn't quite good enough for the national team, but I tried to copy my idol Maradonna," he joked.
Fareed's tenpin bowling experience was just playing for fun and this is the first time that he has witnessed international tenpin competition.
"The standard of play here is incredible," he commented. "As an athlete myself I can see that to be a top player you have to have a good understanding of psychology as well as have a good technique and tactics. It is also interesting to see unique styles of play like Jason Belmonte and Osku Palermaa who use two-handed deliveries. I don't see that in the ladies' field, but they do have a 'spinner' in Wang Yu Ling."
Fareed was recruited to display his commentating talents on KTV2 at the World Ranking Masters as he is also a skilled radio broadcaster, with two years experience at the English station here, has the English and Arabic languages and, of course, as an athlete himself, has a good understanding of the techniques involved at this level of competition.
"We are getting excellent feedback from our viewers and this event will boost bowling in Kuwait," he added. "What also pleases me and the organizing committee is the appreciation of the players, officials and guests of the way this event has been organized. They are so surprised at the high level, especially of the hospitality from the time they stepped off the aircraft, something they have never seen before, not even by half. They are not saying that the tournament is great, they are calling it splendid."

Tanya Petty of Germany maintained her position at the top of the leader board through the final eight games and leads the top eight competitors into Sunday’s quarterfinals, the best of three-game shootout.
Petty had a lower score on the unique lane condition for the final block, a combination of long oil on one lane and short on the other, forcing utmost concentration from all concerned. High games of 265, 258 and 225 in the second to fourth games kept her on top of the wave and she fended off well a strong challenge from Sweden’s Helen Johnsson who finished just 23 pins adrift.
Consolation for Johnsson as she topped the final squad to win the prize of $1,000 with her fine series of 1,773, just eight pins ahead of Swedish team-mate Anna Mattson-Baard, the young lady who came within a 10-pin of a perfect game in today’s fourth game, shooting the highest game of the event to date, men or women, a 299.
This was a remarkable achievement as it was only a 50-50 chance that Mattsson-Baard would take her place on the lanes for the first squad. A pulled muscle earlier in the week almost crippled her and at first she was a doubtful contender, but now holds third place going into the next stage.

Quarter finalists:

1. Tanya Petty, Germany                          5184
2. Helen Johnsson, Sweden                  5161
3. Anna Mattsson-Baard, Sweden         5104
4. Shalin Zulkifli, Malaysia                       5066
5. Britt Brondsted, Denmark                    5048
6. Sara Vargas, Colombia                        5010
7. Kamilla Kjeldsen, Denmark                 5004
8. Putty Armein, Indonesia                        4999

The quarterfinals will commence at 9:00am Sunday morning:
Tanya Petty vs Putty Armein – lanes 5 - 8
Helen Johnsson vs Kamilla Kjeldsen – lanes 9 - 12
Sara Vargas vs Anna Mattsson-Baard – lanes 1 - 4
Shalin Zulkifli vs Britt Brondsted – lanes 13 -16
The higher seed has the choice of starting the match on long or short oil.

The dust settled Saturday night at the end of qualifying for the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Ranking Masters and the man in the envied number one spot is Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong.
The 21-year-old student averaged 225 over his 24 qualifying games and held a 57-pin lead over second-placed Osku Palermaa of Finland, with Puerto Rico’s Luis Rodriguez in third place, making it nice and even to have one member from each of the three zones as tournament leaders.
Local interest is immense as Kuwaiti competitor Khalid Al-Dubyan just made the cut to eighth place by six pins. If Mark Buffa had hit a strike with his second ball of the tenth frame, he would have overtaken the Kuwaiti and marched on into the finals. Alex Liew of Malaysia could also have upset the applecart with a strong final frame finish.
Although Hong was anxious about playing the combination oiling pattern set for today, he opened with a 236 in his first game to settle his nerves.
“I stopped myself from fighting the lanes and concentrated on my mental game,” Hong commented. “I rehearsed each shot before I played it and after two or three games I was fine. I used two different balls and bowled outside boards of the lane for the short oil and an inside track for the long.”
The ‘combination’ pattern is not widely used in international competition, but the unique pattern calls for utmost concentration and focus from the players.
“Personally, I think this oiling pattern should be used in all world and zone championships,” Hong added.
The $1,000 dollar prize for the highest score over the final eight games once again went to a European as Pasi Uotila from Finland outscored the field by 48 pins with a total pinfall of 1953, an average of 244 per game. He took over pole position from the first game, opening with a 289. The highest single game score of the squad was a 290 by Finland’s Osku Palermaa, the player with the unique two-handed delivery.The highest game of the tournament this week is still the 299, rolled by Anna Mattsson-Baard of Sweden on Saturday morning.
Qualifiers for quarterfinals:
1. Wu Siu Hong, Hong Kong                5410 (24 games)
2. Osku Palermaa, Finland                    5363
3. Luis Rodriguez, Puerto Rico  5236
4. Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia  5199
5. Ryan Lalisang, Indonesia                   5187
6. Pasi Uotila, Finland                           5171
7. Robert Andersson, Sweden              5153
8. Khalid Al-Dubyan, Kuwait               5099

 Quarterfinal Order of Play (Best of three games):
Wu Siu Hong vs Khalid Al-Dubyan Lanes 9-12
Osku Palermaa vs Robert Andersson Lanes 13-16
Luis Rodriguez vs Pasi Uotila, Lanes 5-8
Zulmazran Zulkifli vs Ryan Lalisang Lanes 1-4

The men’s quarterfinals will commence after the ladies. Approx 10:45 on Sunday.
Pic (L to R) Uotila, Rodriguez, Zulkifli, Hong, Lalisang, Al-Dubyan, Andersson, Palermaa.

One of the big surprises of this edition of the World Ranking Masters has been the extensive live television coverage on the Kuwait station KTV2. Transmissions start when the first squad takes to the lanes around nine in the morning and carries through until the channel switches to normal programming in the evening. The main commentator has been featured above so it is nice to be able to feature the people who get shut into the 'truck' to arrange and supervise the actual program that goes out on air. Their home is a big van, fully equipped with all studio equipment, that sits outside the bowling center in the car park. All agree, they are doing a wonderful job.

Pictured (L to R): vision mixer Essa Al Amiri, director Abdul Aziz Al Bakur, twins Khaled Ahmed Juma & Majed Ahmed  Juma and assistant director Jawad Al Asraf.
 

The big surprise of the quarterfinals of the World Ranking Masters is the fine performance by local bowler Khalid Al Dubyan (pictured). Rather then being outclassed by the talented octet to make it this far, Al Dubyan won his best-of-three game match Sunday morning against Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong, 220-191 and 256-196, the highest individual scores of the day so far.

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