TOP POINTS FOR QATAR

Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar took over the running with an opening three games in this first squad this morning to total a very handsome 775 and the AMF Bowling World Cup champion had his sights set on doubling that to become the third player over 1,500 for six games.

Alas, that was not to be, but he was still involved in the battles for the prime positions as several of these talented players piled on the strikes to put paid to the last two games syndrome that has seen so many pole contenders dumped into the wilderness.

Going into the last game, it was Sweden's Peter Ljung at the head of the squad, adding a 278 to his previous 289, but an open eighth frame cost him the lead as Ahmed Al Mohandy took over the reins previously held by Shaheen and hit a final 256 to top the squad standings with 1,468, just three pins ahead of Ljung, yet another past AMF World Cup champion.

Ahmed Al-Mohannadi, 29, (pictured) holds a 210 average at home in Doha, but upped that to a 244 here in Helsingborg. His 19 years bowling experience told him to make some changes with this, his fifth entry. He desperately needed to improve on his previous high of 1,323 as that was now out of the cut. "I made several adjustments today," he said. "I moved left on the approach and that really worked well for me."

The Qatar team are in this event as training for the upcoming WTBA World Championships in Malaysia next month and they rate the Super Series as a good training event for the major conflicts to come. "There is a very high level of competition here," Al-Mohannadi added. "It is great to play alongside Tomas Leandersson, Tim Mack and Mika Koivuniemi, so this is good practice for Malaysia. I'm very pleased that I'm now in the top 16, which will give me a break before I have to bowl again."

Our genial host Patrick Backe, proprietor of this unique and pleasant bowling center, now sits in 44th place. That will, most probably put him out of the qualifiers after the next squad, but the tall Swede was quite philosophical about it, "Well, I'm rather busy here, so wouldn't really have time to play the final anyway." He can make up for this when he plays for the Swedish national team in Malaysia.

The record cut for the Super Six/Super Series is 1,347. It remains to be seen whether that figure will be exceeded this afternoon.

Just one full qualifying squad remains before the Desperado squad, then the finals commence at 19:00, local time.

                                                                                                                   Keith Hale, Helsingborg
OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 10: