LADY ON TOP
Anje Ginge Jensen kept pole position on Danish
soil by eclipsing the scores of Swedish tenpin
stars Robert Andersson and Martin Larsen in
the first squad of the 2006 BAI.
Britt Brondsted, just back from the World
Ranking Masters in Kuwait, had four 200-plus
games sandwiched between a lowly 156 and 177
to greet her back to home ground.
The high individual game of the event to date
is a 296 from Morten Levandovski. Maybe a
nervous final tenth-frame ball, but it only
took six pins, leaving the Big Four (4-6-7-10).
'DOWN UNDER' ON TOP
 The irrepressible Jason Belmonte, from Sydney,
Australia (pictured) took over the top place on the
leader board after the second squad finished
on Tuesday evening.
Yes, that two-handed
delivery man looks like being in yet another
final, maybe once again that other two-handed
exponent, Osku Palermaa of Finland, who has
yet to compete.
Ladies occupy second and third places as
lithe Britt Brondsted's second entry brought
her 1355 and a place among the leaders.
STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 3:
Status quo on Wednesday night when the
dust of battle from squad 3 had settled. Rikke
Holm Rasmussen from Denmark topped the squad,
but his total pinfall of 1277 over the six
games did not disturb the leaders, so our
handsome young man from 'down-under' still
reigns supreme and Rasmussen did not improve
upon his previously bowled position of fourth
place on 1325.
One interesting piece of news is that the
last ball of Morten Levandoski's 296 game on
Monday night left the Big Four, the 4-6-7-10
split. That nice score remains the high game
of the tournament to date.
STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 4:
Just a determined dozen took to the lanes at
11.00am Thursday morning for Squad 4 and none
troubled the leader board, the highest
six-game series of 1268 came from WM-Proshop's
Michael Wittendorff from Copenhagen, bringing
himself up to 16th place. Allan Bryde hit the
high game of the morning, a 252, but that came
in the fifth game after a slow start. He
followed it with a 220 but only counted 1145
and currently sits in 41st place.
The Lovvang Bowl is now beginning to really
buzz as many of the overseas competitors
arrive in town. Friday should really see some
serious challenges to Belmonte's pole
position.
STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 5:
The lanes do not seem to be getting any easier
at the otherwise friendly Lovvang Bowling Ce nter
here on the outskirts of Aalborg. The top score
from the two dozen participants of Squad 6,
which took to the lanes at 15:00 this afternoon,
were topped by Nina Flack (pictured) who lives
around 100 km east of Gothenburg in Sweden. The
petite blond came home with 1299 with her first
entry, including the 48 pin bonus for the
six-game series, and also hit the high game of
the squad, a 258.
But once again, Jason Belmonte's score leads the
way and is looking pretty secure, at least for a
while. The 19:00 squad this evening features
some big guns as the flying Finns have arrived.
Demonstrating their skills will be the likes of
Lasse Lintila, Kimmo Lehtonen and the other
two-hander, Osku Palermaa. Lintila and Palermaa
have been paired together in the lane draw.
STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 6:
Well, the Flying Finns proved their worth by
dominating Thursday night's final squad and Sami
 Konsteri,
28, from Turku (pictured) took the squad honors
to finish with 1358 and a high game of 258. The
busy guy who combines owning a pro shop and a
restaurant in a bowling center likes the Lovvang
Bowl very much, having won the Aalborg
International in 2002. "This center is very good
for me," he remarked. "I not only won the AI
here but I also did very well here in the European
Championships. It would be very nice to win here
again, I hope I do."
Konsteri's total pinfall brought him into third
place, splitting the two girls, Jensen and
Brondsted.
It did look as though Belmonte's pole position
would be eclipsed but the stocky Aussie still
reigns supreme.
113 of the anticipated 180 entries have now
taken to the lanes and the balance will be
arriving throughout the day on Friday.
OSKU'S CHALLENGE FALLS SHORT
Seemingly a much higher standard of scoring in
Squad 8 brought promise of a new leader at the end
of the si x
games. Stocky Englishman set off with a 257 in his
first game, closely followed with Osku Palermaa of
Finland (pictured) on 256. Then those darned Finns
put their feet heavily on the throttle to throw
down the gauntlet to Belmonte's pole position.
Palermaa came to the fore with a 279 in the second
game. Strangely, Or Aviram of Israel hit a rare
score of two with his first ball of the second
game, a feat copied a couple of lanes away later
in the game. Come the third game and Palermaa ran
into a wall of trouble. A strike in the first
frame was the lone one of the game, it was
followed by a series of sixes, sevens, eights and
nines to fall back with 162 and just a 697 first
three total.
Petteri Salonen then came into the limelight with
a 278 in the fourth game but Palermaa, rolling his
second tournament entry, took the squad lead back,
235 to a 146 from Salonen.
A humble 204 in the sixth and final game brought
Palermaa the top score of the squad with 1357, but
that was fourth place overall and still 27 pins
short of the target set by Belmonte earlier in the
week. A NEW LEADER - AT LAST
Helen Johnsson of Lund, near Malmo (pictured), is
a top Swedish lady bowler who just loves to be
 in
pole position. Just back from the World Ranking
Masters in Kuwait, the 29-year-old attractive
blond picked up a neat $1,000 prize there for
topping the ladies' squad and could now be well in
the running for another grand for being top
qualifier of this year's Brunswick Aalborg
International.
Johnsson played nip-and-tuck with fellow Swede
Martin Larsen through this ninth squad, taking
over top of the leader board in the third game,
losing it back to Larsen in the fourth, then
consolidating pole for the fifth and sixth games.
Both Larsen and Johnsson had high games of 268 in
this squad, but Johnsson maintained her strong
source of energy to finish good scores whilst
Larsen ran out of steam in the home straight with
a humble 184.
This was Johnsson's second entry whilst Larsen has
tried to hit the jackpot five times.
Despite injuring her foot during a 10 km. run last
Monday, Johnsson dominated this squad. "I used a
different ball and changed the area," she
commented, after the squad. "It would be nice to
win the top qualifier prize again, I won it here
in 2004. I'd also like to improve on my fifth
place finish here last year." CHALLENGES
GO AWRY
Toni Laine of Finland and Norway's Tore
Torgersen (he with the newborn young lady by the
name of Tone) vied for honors in the final squad
on Friday night. An opening 236 and 289 from Laine
set him on course for a strong challenge to
Johnsson's earlier new target of 1389 and
torgersen could have stayed with him but for a 153
in the fourth game.
Laine let his chances of glory slip in the
final game, hitting just 166, so now he has to be
content with third place overall.
Torgersen finished strong with 248 and 255, so but
for that low score in the fourth game Helen
Johnsson's reign at the top of the leader board
could have been very short indeed. Just an even
200 would have seen the Norwegian in control.
SWEDISH DOMINATION
'Tis a fine, sunny day in Aalborg and some of
those warm rays must have touched young Mikael
 Kanold
of Sweden (pictured) in Squad 11. The 20-year-old from Sundbyberg, a suburb of Stockholm, reputed to be
the youngest-ever member of Team Sweden, is the
first to break the 1400 barrier to total 1427 and
take pole position from fellow countrywoman Helen
Johnsson.
After four games it was sole Greek entrant
Leonidas Maragkos of Athens in first place and
looking to steal the honors, but he failed badly
over the final hurdles, whilst Kanold came home
with a 279 and 233.
This was Kanold's third entry. "The lanes seemed
so much easier than yesterday," he remarked. " Now
I can rest until tomorrow. Perfect!"
SAMI IN CONTENTION AGAIN
Or Aviram
of Israel set the pace when Squad 12 took to the
lanes Saturday afternoon, racking up 475 over the
first two games (232, 243) but went back down the
slide with a 181 in the third.
Denmark's Allan Bryde then took over the running
with 682 and held the front through game four but
with Sami Konsteri (pictured) breathing down his
neck, just three pins aback.
Bryde held his nerve through the fifth but three
splits in the final game brought him back to earth
with a 189 and a total pinfall of 1320, the
highest of his seven entries this year to place
16th.
Konsteri hit back with a final 244 to take Squad
12 honors with 1332 but his previous higher score
of 1358 holds him currently in sixth place.
Just two squads left to bowl today, then the
dreaded Desperado Squad around midnight. The cut
to 42 is creeping up to the projected score of 95
over, currently at 75 with a possible 120 players
left to bowl.
SWEDES SCORE AGAIN
Game one in the lucky for some and unlucky for
others 13th Squad saw another Sundbyberg player,
Jenny Hoglund, set off with a hot pace, scoring
267, plus her eight-pin bonus for 275. Fellow
Swede Robert Andersson trailed her on 255.
That pace was not maintained by the Swedish lady
and Andersson took over the squad lead with a 233
for a 488 two-game total.
 Three
games down and Andersson slipped to seventh place
after a disastrous 179 and Trine Simonsen of
Denmark came to the fore on 699(inc. 24 bonus).
Latvia's sole contender, Nikolay Ovchinnikovs had a
nice 692 series to hop into third place.
Game four and aforementioned Latvian followed his
third game of 278 with a 267 and now he led the
pack.
Well, Ovchinnikovs had his 15 minutes of fame and
left the scene with a 167 in the fifth and left
the gate open for Marcus Berndt of Sweden
(pictured) to jump into first place in this squad,
144 over after five games.
A 218 in the final game was enough to give Berndt
a 1362 total and fifth place overall.
Marcus Berndt, 17, still a student certainly has
an impressive pedigree. The Malmo resident has
Yvonne Berndt for a mother and she was European
Champion in Frankfurt in 1981 where she won gold
in All events and Masters, and father, Ernst, was
also Swedish national team player.
This was Berndt's second entry this year but this
is his first attempt at the Brunswick Aalborg
International. We wish him well in tomorrow's
gruelling final rounds.
THE FINAL QUALIFYING SQUAD ........
............. and two targets in mind for the
49 participants. First, to make the cut to 42; the
second to maybe lead the qualifying squad and
scoop the €1,000 bonus, currently in the virtual
possession of Mikael Kanold.
Petite Piritta Kantola of Finland set off well in
the first game with a 279. Add her eight point
bonus and she was well on the way with 287. A
follow-up 223 kept Kantola's dinky nose well in
front with 518 over the two games.
Game three and the petite Finn still led the way,
despite two splits which were followed by four
strikes to get her back on course. She maybe ran
out of puff in the final frames to finish with
199+8 for a 725 series. England's Gary Baker
mounted a charge with a third game 268 and is
running just ten pins behind Kantola on 715.
Piritta kept pole by the skin of her teeth, only
scoring 156 in the fourth game and Baker let her
off the hook with a 173, to close just one pin
behind. It was a juxtaposition in the fifth as
Baker dropped to sixth and Kantola to eighth as
Sweden's Marcus Nyberg zoomed to the top on 1095
with Rebecka Larsen one pin back.
Nyberg held on for the squad laurels but his total
of 1318 leaves him well short of a good position
on the leader board. He has to be content with
21st place.
Mikael Kanold had the pleasure of receiving a nice
wad of notes totaling €1,000 for topping the
qualifiers. Picture in 'Tournament Notes'.
Now comes the dreaded Desperado Squad and well
over 50 'desperates' are standing in line for
aplce on the lanes. One game on one lane and a
chance for six to join the throng on Sunday
morning.
DESPERADO QUALIFIERS:
1. Joonas Huolman, Finland
257
2. Thomas Block, Germany
244
3. Gary Baker. England
235
4. Peter Ljung, Sweden
235
5. Joachim Karlsson, Sweden
231
6. Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland
229
Full scores for the 59 participants on:
www.bai2006.dk
FINAL QUALIFYING STANDINGS:
Top 42 + 6 from Desperado Squad advance to finals |
