IT'S ALL SYSTEMS GO IN THESSALONIKI

Already established as one of the leading events on the European Bowling Tour (EBT), the second edition of the Brunswick Euro Challenge returns once again to the Strike Bowling Club in Thessaloniki in northern Greece and can boast an even bigger entry than last year's EBT record 309. In fact, as the figures stand on Thursday, that European record entry figure has been exceeded by over one hundred players.
Tournament director, center proprietor, Brunswick distributor and genial host, Bill Hartofillis, said: "As one of the founders of the Brunswick Euro Challenge, I feel really good that everyone comes here because they appreciate our Greek hospitality.
"We looked at several of the European ranking tournaments and settled on our current format, and we hope to once again have the largest entry. I really want to apologize to the many players who were unable to get an entry this year, just due to the lack of space. Believe me, if we had 32 lanes here we could have attracted well over a thousand entries. Next year, we'll run the Euro Challenge at the same time, but in a bigger center.
"I think that the secret of our success is the expertise of Brunswick and our staff of Strike, Inc. We are not looking to make a financial profit from the event, but to make bowling more popular throughout Europe, and beyond. This tournament will always be expensive for us to run, but we'll always keep the entry fees as low as we can. We believe in the future of our sport."

Pic: Bill Hartofillis with two-month old Elizabeth, daughter of Greek national player Takis Karetsos, among the early tournament leaders.

BRITT'S ON FORM
"I'm feeling good, although I haven't bowled a lot of tournaments lately," said Brunswick Euro Challenge defending champion Britt Brondsted, 23, of Copenhagen, Denmark when she completed her first entry on Thursday afternoon. "The Ballmaster Open in Helsinki last January was the only major event I played in this year and I unfortunately missed the cut there by just ten pins.
"Now I have to concentrate on my game but not fall into the trap of being pressured, but I'm very excited at being back in major competition. I was very surprised to win this event and last year and, frankly, will be even more surprised if I make it a double. I have been working on my game and practising to a planned strategy with Danish national coach Christer Backe, and that is working well."
A big step for Brondsted this year has been a change of job from being a Copenhagen accountant to the prestigious position as Danish sales manager for VBS Bowling AB of Sweden, Brunswick distributors for Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
"Now I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the bowling industry," Brondsted added, "and I'm finding that it is a lot of fun, but hard work. It is so much better than being in an eight-to-five job."
The lithe Dane hit 1381 over her six games today which took her into second place, a score which included eight pins per game ladies' bonus. "I was playing an outside line and using the new Brunswick Absolute Inferno bowling ball, so I did quite well. I thought at first that the shot was way outside, but I moved in just a little after the first game.
"I think that the eight pin bonus is just about right for women, although some tournaments give ten pins. Women are getting to be so much stronger on the tournament circuit now and Zara Glover of England, Sweden's Linda Haglund and Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia all, like me, won tournaments competing in the same division as the men."

KK TUNES UP
Top ranked European Tour lady bowler Kamilla Kjeldsen of Denmark is determined to knock fellow countrywoman Britt Brondsted off her current second place perch, increasing her bowling arsenal with a late purchase of a new secret weapon, the Brunswick Absolute Inferno bowling ball.
Pro shop and drilling guru Mario Joseph is pictured carrying out the delicate operation of making the thumb and finger holes go into just the right places and that the resulting balance will suit the Danish star's formidable delivery.
Joseph has a current stock of 800 of the new Brunswick balls, which works out at two for each competitor in this prestigious event. "I don't expect to have to load many unsold balls onto the truck on Monday morning," he joked.

TEEMU'S THE MAN
Teemu Raatikainen, 45, of Finland topped Friday's early morning squad with a score of 1333, which brought him into contention in fourth place overall, but with many more squads yet to bowl. The Helsinki swimming pool worker is impressed with his first entry and with the whole tournament. "This is a very nice event," he commented, "and I am thoroughly enjoying my first visit to Thessaloniki. This is certainly a tournament I will make sure of attending each year. It's warmer here than Helsinki, too. It was minus 20 degrees when I left Finland."
Raatikainen is taking five months off work to bowl in major international tournaments. "This is the fourth consecutive weekend I have bowled tournaments and from here I will go to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Open."
The stocky Finn is one of very few players to have won the British Open. He did that twice, in 1988 and 1991.

DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION
There are certainly no complaints from the 27-nation talented field of international bowlers regarding the lane condition throughout the qualifying squads at the BEC. The 20 lanes of the fantastic Strike Club Bowl are cleaned and dressed for each squad, all under the direction of lane wizard Tom Brown of Lubbock, Texas, nicknamed by our genial host, Bill Hartofillis, as the 'Greek from Texas'.
Brown has not set an easy 'shot', but one that rewards talent and good thinking.
"What we have is heavy oil from zero to 15 feet and then a good lengthwise taper to 39 feet," explained Brown. "With this you have a small amount of carry-down.
"If the bowler thinks about the mid-lane and does not overpower the ball, the scoring is there. This condition rewards the good shot and not one overpowering the lane."
Brown has been in the bowling industry for some 34 years, mainly in the resurfacing and installation business and has been working for Brunswick for the past four years. This is his second time over in the BEC in Thessaloniki.
Our picture shows Tom Brown (center) flanked by Technical Director Koos Groenenberg of the Netherlands and Strike Bowl's Chief Mechanic Nikos (Doctor) Kalaidopoulos.

THE MARK OF ZARA
Think of dominant players in the ever-increasing field of talented women bowlers and it is not very long before the name of England's Zara Glover, 23, comes to the fore. Winning three gold medals in the 2003 WTBA World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia brought the Lancashire lass to the fore and a string of tournament successes since then has kept her name in shining lights world-wide. Another major success was the outstanding victory in the Oltremare Championships in Naples, Italy last September, outpointing a strong men's field to take her rightful place atop the podium.
This is Glover's second appearance in the Brunswick Euro Challenge. Last year, she had the perhaps unfortunate fate of meeting ultimate champion Britt Brondsted of Denmark in the final rounds. She lost to Brondsted and the rest is history.
In fact, three women won European tournaments last year when the men's and women's fields were combined, the other being Linda Haglund of Sweden, taking the Danish Masters title in Copenhagen.
Glover has been working as a coach for the Bowlplex group in southern England, based in Bournemouth, and is currently on the move to Nuneaton in the Midlands, taking over as coach at the local Lakeside Bowl.
"It has been fascinating changing from being just a bowler to being involved in the bowling industry," Glover commented. "I now understand that as a commercial venture the bowling centers have to adjust the balance of open and league play. It is a very pleasant industry and I thoroughly enjoy my work."
The move will give Glover many more opportunities to compete in European and other major international events.
"I'm really looking forward to playing the World Ranking Masters at the end of April in Lake Wales, Florida," Glover added. "I will be up against the top 48 amateur women bowlers in the world and will have to play my very best.
"I really have to thank Brunswick, especially Dave Trend and Graham Waller, for all their assistance and sponsorship which has helped me raise my game. I congratulate them, too, on this Brunswick Euro Challenge which, in just two years, has become the premier event on the European Tour."
Another major step will be the trip up the aisle for her marriage to partner Jon Zadel next year. Maybe she'll then have a new nickname with the upcoming initials of 'ZZ'.

GETTING IT TAPED
Almost every bowler knows that a conditioner is applied to a bowling lane, mainly for protection from the impact of the bowling balls, but also to assist the scoreability. From there on, things get mighty technical, but suffice to say that a special ultra-violet sensitive brightening agent is added to the respective conditioners, or the more popular expression of 'oil', so that when an adhesive tape is run across the lane the agent will adhere. The next process is for the tape to be run through an UV sensitive electronic optical reader which, from the three readings on each lane, will produce a graph which shows the levels of the differing 'units' across the 42 inches of lane.
Our picture shows Brunswick lane expert Tom Brown taking a reading immediately after the close of the 08:00 squad on Saturday morning, which will show how the conditioner levels have changed after the 18 games of play.
The graph (right) shows the pattern of conditioner build-up at four distances of readings, red at six feet, yellow 15, blue 25 and green 37 feet.

KEEPING IN TOUCH
A popular location within the Strike Bowl is the 'Internet Cafe', a site with three PCs on broadband lines which the bowlers can use to browse the standings of this and other bowling tournaments and keep in touch with the folks at home with email.
Early tournament leader Anders Ohman of Sweden, now bumped into second place by fellow countryman Martin Larsen, is pictured keeping in touch with his friends in Stockholm.

ZADEL ZOOMS IN
Jon Zadel, 25, of Bournemouth, England was the focus of attention in Saturday’s second squad by bowling the second highest game of this year’s Brunswick Euro Challenge, hitting a 290 in his second game. That meant the pro shop assistant had a spare in the first frame and then hit eleven straight strikes. Asked which pins he left in the first frame, he replied: “I’m sorry, but I have completely forgotten. Maybe it was the 4-pin.”
Having bowled a six-game series of around 1393 with his Ultimate Inferno ball, Zadel can now sit on the sidelines as he is well inside the cut to 48. “This is my first time in the BEC and I must say that I am very impressed with the tournament, it is nothing short of excellent,” Zadel remarked.
It’s a family affair as fiance Zara Glover is also competing in the tournament, but she has yet to bowl a score high enough to beat the cut. She has two more chances in tonight’s final qualifying squads, and then it is the dreaded Desperado.

THE LEARNING CURVE
When not competing on the lanes and striving to beat that dreaded cut to 48th place, bowlers and their friends have been able to attend some very interesting and informative bowling and pro shop clinics, hosted by the inimitable Ray Edwards of Brunswick.
Here is a selection of pictures by Graham Waller from some of the many sessions that Edwards has held:

Ray Edwards is an R&D Engineer for the Consumer Products Group of Brunswick, responsible for new core designs and helps coordinate testing of both core and coverstock improvements using the Brunswick Throbot and field testing with professional and amateur bowlers. Edwards started bowling in junior leagues and has never stopped since then.  He bowled on the Purdue collegiate team while he was earning a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering.  He also worked from 1977 through the mid '80's with the Professional Bowlers Camps (PBC) schools where he ran the pro shop facilities on site at the week long programs and lectured on the art and science of ball fitting and selection. From 1983-86 Ray ran the Pro Shop at George Pappas' Park Lanes in Charlotte NC while competing in the PBA Southern Region before moving back to Chicago to work in a pro shop while he bowled part time on the National Tour and in the Midwest Region.  Ray joined Brunswick in 1991 to help develop the information package for the Phantom product line, the first dynamically asymmetric bowing balls.  His engineering background combined with his bowling knowledge allowed him to communicate with bowlers in terms and illustrations that made "bowling sense".  His ability to watch, coach, explain and match up equipment to bowlers and lane conditions led to an seven year run as the PBA Tour Representative for Brunswick from 1991 to 1998. He has conducted drilling and pro shop seminars worldwide to share his knowledge of the sport.

TIME FOR THE SMALLER BALLS
Just time to relax between squads for Jason Belmonte of Australia, yes, the guy with that unique two-handed delivery, and England's Zara Glover.

But don't worry, their expertise on the lanes far outshines that displayed on Saturday evening on the green beize.

TV FOR THE WORLD
The 2005 edition of the Brunswick Euro Challenge can be showcased around the world as the finals are being taped by a local television production company. "The main sports on Greek television are football, basketball and volleyball, but we will be able to produce a bowling show that will be transmitted on two major channels," said producer Dimitris Kampas. "Brunswick will have a master tape of the finals which I understand will be available to its distributors world-wide."
The production company are using six cameras to get the best shots and the final tape will have the best parts of the last day of competition and the award ceremony.
Our picture shows director Bill Georgiou (left) and Dimitris Kampas working on the editing suite.

250 IS THE NUMBER TO BEAT
It took a 250-plus average from Martin Larsen of Sweden to clinch pole position in the first six games of qualifying and that incredible average once again in the second round, a further six games for the top 48 players plus six from the Desperado squad, to top the leader board.
This time Darren Cundy, (pictured) from Ilkeston in England, set the lanes alight, firing strike after strike for 1509, including the high game of 274 and is the number one seed going into the best-of-three game rounds. The 28-year-old warehouseman now faces Sami Heinila, the 32^nd seed, in the next round.
“I’m very surprised to have bowled so well this morning,” he said, after the grueling round, “I used my Ultimate Inferno this morning but polished it more than yesterday, and that really worked well for me. I started using an outside line but moved in to the fourth arrow later in the series.”
Cundy is doing a good job for Brunswick and Rollrite, his sponsors. Currently number one in the UK rankings he is certainly a player to watch on the international circuit. He was the high scorer in the Rollrite team which led the ABC Championships for a month in the United States in a field exceeding 10,000 teams, the quintet eventually finishing fifth.
“This is my first visit to the Brunswick Euro Challenge. Strike Bowl is a very nice center and we are bowling on a challenging condition,” he added.

Return to Main Page
For further information, contact Keith Hale: keithhale@btconnect.com