FIRST PAST THE POST

Just one of the six squads in this year's Malta Senior Open has made it up through the home straight and completed the twelve qualifying games.

Top of the leader board in the men's division is Keith Howes of Tilbury, Essex, England, enjoying life hitting as many senior tenpin tournaments as he can. In fact, his spice of life is that he is just coming off winning the 'C' division of the Dutch Senior Open in Amsterdam last week. He's proving that being 73 years of age is no barrier to enjoying bowling as he competes in the European Senior Bowling Championships and the other European events such as Cyprus.

But Keith puts the Malta Senior Open right at the top of his favorite events. He has competed in all nine of these annual events. "I really like the atmosphere and the people here," he told us.

Leading the ladies' division is Fran Deken of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Fran first came to Europe as a spectator to the FIQ World Championships at Tolworth, England in 1975. Her father was born in Rotterdam, Holland, so she feels a great affinity with our continent.

The next squad to take to the lanes at 12:30 today is the 'E' group, 50 players bowling their first block of six games. Then, at 16:00, group 'A' will bowl games 7-12. Today's program will be completed with the final first block for Squad 'F'.

Friday the 13th will be unlucky for some as all squads will complete their qualifying games and those below 72 place in the men's division and 36 in the ladies will be able to get out and about around this delightful island. The qualifiers will return for at least four more games on Saturday.

Pic: Keith Howes and Fran Deken.

SQUAD 'A' (Thursday 16:00):

The intrepid members of Squad 'A' witnessed a miscellany of scoring, high and low, but the highlight of this group was Sven-Olof Gustafsson of Sweden not only leading the squad but also posting the top twelve-game score of 2621 to hold pole position overnight.

Gustafsson (pictured, right), "I'm over 75...." comes from Fagerstad in his homeland and has always been a prominent contender in the Malta Senior Open, this his fifth entry, having lost by one pin in the final in 2001 to Mario Masera of Italy and then losing out to Belgium's Roger 'Rupert' Pieters by a slim margin the following year.

After leading the ladies' field over the first six games, Catherine Roux (left), 54, from La Rochelle in France had a lowly second set this evening  and so slots into second place overall behind Fran Deken from the United States with 2291.

SQUAD 'C' - Friday 09:00. Final six of 12 games.

Squad 'C', the third to complete the 12-game qualifying stint, saw some great scoring, despite starting at 9:00 am, which is not a popular hour in this entertainment capital of the island where life continues until dawn.

Christer Danielsson of Sweden dominated the squad. The 51-year-old leader of the EBPA Senior Tour rankings from Stensjon liked the lane condition today and despite changing his bowling balls a few times hit some good scores. "I'm happy with my performance today," he told us, "although I kept leaving far too many corner pins."

Christer now leads by nearly 150 points over defending champion, fellow Swede Torbjorn Halllng.

It's another Swede leading the ladies in this squad, too. Sonja Ostlund, 70 (pictured), from Stockholm fought off the challenge from Ewa Krantz of Germany to top the early scores. Competing in her sixth Malta Senior Open, Sonja hopes to make it to the final once again. She lost to Farida Pascoal-Blom in a memorable final. "It is always difficult to get good scores when you move to the lanes for the second three-game block," Sonja commented. "With men and women of differing averages and skills playing on the same lanes you get some strange oil patterns after a few games."

Sonja now slots into second place behind Fran Deken of the United States.

The top 72 men and 36 women advance to Round Two which commences on Saturday morning.

SQUAD 'F' - Friday, October 13 (12:30):

Four of the six qualifying squads have now completed their twelve games and a very interesting mix of players vie for the leading positions. Kalle Gaiser from Germany topped this squad with 1264 and slots into fourth place overall. He hit 652 over his first block, but dropped to 612 when he moved lanes, a drop also seemingly experienced by most.

The leading lady of the group was Chris Wouters, 58, from Balen in Belgium (pictured). She is a 'rookie', very much enjoying her first visit to both the island and the Malta Senior Open. "This place is just fantastic," she exclaimed. But we all know that! She is now fifth in the ladies' standings.

Chris has a lot of international success but she is very proud of silver medals won in senior events in Johannesburg, South Africa and Netanya, Israel.

SQUAD 'E' - Friday 16:00
It's 'Deutschland Uber Alles' once again as Ulz Dehler and Gisela Insenger of Germany (once again pictured) top Squad 'E' and slip neatly into the qualifying standings. Just one squad to go now, then we will know the groups taking to the lanes Saturday morning for a further four games.

The men finishing 37-72 will open the day's play at 09:00 and those placed 1-36 at 11:30. The young ladies, 1-36, take their places at 14:00. All play four games and the respective fields are then reduced to 36 men and 18 ladies to progress to Sunday morning.

Friday's final squad, those in 'D' take to the lanes at 19:30, but really with things running a trifle late, around 20:15. Then the groups advancing to later rounds will be decided, the rest lucky enough to be able to enjoy the delights of Malta.

Insinger came forth and finished fourth, 117off the pace set by Fran Deken of the United States, still sitting in pole position with 2394 with only another seven ladies to finish their qualifying scores. Of those, none are really in a challenging position, not even Doris Camilleri of Malta who won this event back in 2003.

Twenty-two men remain to play their six games in Squad E, which is running some 45 minutes late.

It's anybody's guess as to how well the final group bowl, but John Bosch of the Netherlands is the squad leader on 1371 and he needs to more than double that to take the lead but something around 2400 should see him among the top 36, the group that will surely be fighting for a place in the third round.

SQUAD 'D' - Friday 19:30:

The 'last chance saloon' for those coveted places in the top 72 in the men's division and the women's 36.

Determined efforts from past champion Doris Camilleri with 2236 and John Bosch from the Netherlands (2698) saw them top Squad 'D' and make the respective cuts, John Bosch making it into second place overall and Doris Camilleri into eleventh.

Gunther Schollen from Belgium had the crowd on the edge of their seats with ten strikes in a row before leaving a 7-pin with the eleventh ball. He missed that pin and joins two other players with 292 including bonus, so missed out of the sole $250 prize for the high game.

Paul le Louarn of Jersey, Channel Islands, came close to a perfecto, too, hitting a 279 in the final game of the night.

The 72nd place cut for the men's division came at 2296, a 181 average for Erkki Heikenen of Finland and, for the women, it was 173.25 that took 36th place on 2079 for Jos Hurenkamp of the Netherlands.

So, qualifying leaders are Christer Danielsson of Sweden (pictured, left) and Fran Deken from the United States (right) with 233 and 199 averages respectively.

MENS FINAL STANDINGS AFTER 12 QUALIFYING GAMES


MEN'S ROUND 1 PDF FILE

LADIES:
LADIES ROUND 1 PDF FILE

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