FINAL QUALIFYING SCORES:
Top 36 plus 3 from Desperado advance to
Masters
CHANS FOR A SINGAPORE DOUBLE
March 22:
Honors to Singapore to both Overseas Open
Division leaders as we go into the final day
of qualifying of the vibrant
 30th
Malaysian Open. Derek Chan (pictured, left)
and Evelyn Chan (right) are
not related but both are members of the
prestigious Singapore National Team.
Derek, who won the Youth Masters Division last
year, is just three pins shy of getting into
four figures and a 250-plus average and Evelyn
could have done with one more pin to hit 900.
Competition for Open Division places and a
spot in tomorrow's field of 36 in the Masters
is fierce and the likes of the irrepressible
Tim Mack from the United States and
Australia's Andrew Frawley will be doing their
very best to promote themselves from their
current spots in the reserves.
Mack managed a 913 in the later 16:30 squad so
advanced to tenth place in the Mixed Pool and
looks set for a place in tomorrow's Masters.
Frawley, however, has to fight again, and
maybe yet again. The final squad is at 22:30
and then the dreaded Desperado squad hits the
lanes at midnight with just three places
available for men and two for the girls.
Mack has just arrived from Thessaloniki,
Greece where he was competing in the Brunswick
Euro Challenge. He opened his account there by
bowling a perfect game in his opening
qualifying block. "It is a lo ng
time since I bowled on wooden lanes," he
commented, but he's hoping that he bowls as
well as he did for medals here during the 2003
WTBA World Championships.
Sadly, there are no European competitors in
the ladies' divisions this year so the only
chance of the title leaving Asia is if
defending champion Diandra Asbaty (left) of
the United States takes her place at the top
of the podium once again.
At the time of writing, there are just more
squads to take to the Pyramid MegaBowl lanes
and the cut will not be made until the wee
small hours of Friday morning, local time. Keith Hale
SOME FELL BY THE WAYSIDE
March 23: There are a lot of disappointed
bowlers sitting on the concourse of the
Pyramid MegaLanes here in Kuala Lumpur today,
mainly those that came not quite close enough
to the cut for the second stage of this
exciting event, the Masters.
In the men's division, Andrew Frawley of
Australia tried time and time again to get
into the elite three dozen and finally swore
that he would make it through in the Desperado
squad. "I've got in through the Desperado
squad in a couple of recent major
tournaments," he commented, "and I feel sure I
will do it tonight as I don't think there will
be a lot of entries that late at night."
Unfortunately, he didn't make it, as he placed
ninth in the 'reserves'.
 Defending
champion is Alex Liew of Malaysia (pictured),
competing on his home lanes, so will be a very
hard nut to crack. He will be winging his way
to England in late April to compete in the
World Tenpin Masters.
Two bowlers that have just made the trip back
from the Brunswick Euro Challenge in Greece,
Tim Mack and Wu Siu Hong, managed to shake off
the jetlag to make it through and the lone
European, Rhys Parftt from England was way off
the beam.
In the ladies' field, Tsai Tsin Yi from
Chinese Taipei was in the worst slot, first
reserve, so took her chance through the
Desperado squad. Luckily, her 182 was enough
for second place and she is now in the
Masters' field and could probably win her
place in the stepladder final.
But the woman to beat will be multi-Bowler of
the Year and Hall of Famer Diandra Asbaty of
the United States, the defending champion. she
is so knowledgeable and powerful that it
currently looks as though the question is -
who will come second?
Both divisions of the Masters will play two
blocks of eight games, the first on Friday,
the second on Saturday. The top six will
advance to the televised stepladder finals on
Saturday evening.
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Photos by Terence
Yaw, MTBC
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For further information, contact Keith Hale:
keithhale679@aol.com
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