Larsen the Defender

Martin Larsen, the instantly recognizeable lofty, lithe Swede wearing the ubiquitous Team Pergamon shirt, is well on the road to

defending his Bowltech Aalborg International title after taking over the top place on the leader board on the early Friday morning Squad 7.

He was in unstoppable form over the first four games, totaling 1030 and looked set to set at least 1500. Unfortunately that was not to be, but his 1447 did take over the top spot from Kamilla Kjeldsen's 1445. He recovered from a bad start in the sixth game with a 223 and that was just enough.

"This feels really good after yesterday's block. I felt I was bowling well but didn't make the right adjustments," said the tall Swede. "This morning I woke up and had a good feeling. I had a good four games today and then I think my focus went down a little bit. Maybe I thought it was getting a little too easy. Then in the fifth game I didn't get the carry and left one 7-10 split. At the start of the sixth I was not really on my toes but the last half of the game I managed to get focused.

"I felt that I was throwing away the chance of taking over the lead but managed to get things together over the last five shots. Really, I should have shot much higher, but I'm happy with a good score. I've been feeling a little 'on-and-off' lately but finally I've had a couple of games where I have thrown the ball really good."

Larsen had a clear advantage over second-placed Dominic Barrett from England on 1385 and another Team Pergamon member, Mattias Wetternberg, took third place on the squad with 1377.

Live web streaming of the 13:00 and 17:00 squads (local time) will be on: www.bambuser.com/channel/timotv, mostly in Finnish.

TOP TEN STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 7: