Squad 3 to Aviram

The top two places in the 2011 Catalonia Open have been taken over by players in the third squad, that session taking to the lanes at 17:00 on Thursday afternoon.

Or Aviram of Haifa, Israel has taken over pole position from Finland's Joonas Jehkinen, the Finn shooting 1320 in the opening squad, but that has been eclipsed by Aviram with 1357 this afternoon. and new into second place comes Yoan Alix from France, 18 sticks behind the lithe Israeli with 1339.

It does look as though there is going to be someone breaking that 1400-barrier, which seems elusive right now and maybe that will happen on the 21:00 squad tonight.

Just four exceeded `1300 this time, the other two being Sweden's Rebecka Larsen, Jr on 1311, including her eight points per game bonus, and Peder Grimsen from Sweden with 1304.

"I didn't start off too well, I felt I was bowling good but I had some problems with carry and Iknew I should do better," explained Aviram. "It was the third game before I really felt that I had my bowling back and I was really happy to be able to shoot 1357 and win the squad, thereby automatically being in Sunday's final.

"This year I am focusing on thournaments that are, shall I say, more profitable, but I want to be in the European Championships later this year.

"My bowling has been 'off' earlier this year and I have been making a lot of changes in my game, concentrating on my technical game, changes in equipment. Basically, I treated last year as an improvement year. This year I am going all in with bowling, cutting back my work so that I can bowl more. I am flying a lot to the Scandinavian area, so basically I am putting in more effort than ever before."

One interesting piece about the Aviram family is that Or, and his mother and sister, have all represented Israel in the AMF World Cup. Or was second to Michael Schmidt of Canada when the QubicaAMF World Cup was staged in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 3: