Brenda Edwards of the United States and Belgium's Gery Verbruggen topped the women's and men's division tables after the six games of Singles, the opener of the 2nd Federation Cup in Barcelona.

When Edwards started with the first eight strikes in the final game, it looked as though the women's leading score would be hogher than that of the men, but a couple of stubborn 7-pins in the ninth and eleventh frames brought her score back to 268 and allowed Verbruggen the bragging rights by just nine pins.

Edwards finished with 1373, a 228.8 average over the six games, whilst Verbruggen totaled 1382 for a 230.3 average. The Belgian had high games of 248 and 247 whilst Edwards rolled a 278 and 268 despite a disappointing start of 167.

"It was hard work today," exclaimed Edwards after the squad. "I had to be very observant. Little moves were very big for me today. I came out of the blocks and shot 167, so trying to figure out and make the move from playing too far inside to too far outside and making a move like somewhere in the middle and then being very firm and very behind the ball. It took a little while to get to that, but it worked in the end.

"The last pair of lanes we were on, 11 and 12, I found that lane 11 was much tighter than 12. so I had to pay attention. As I said, it was work and you really had to watch what the ball was doing and thry to stay ahead.

"This is my first time in Europe. I bowled in Guatemala to qualify for this event and that was my first trip out of the United States. I'm leaving on Thursday to go home but hopefully I'll come back real soon. Ther history of this city is just amazing. I'm a school teacher back in the United States and seeing this history is so cool. I always try to take a lot of stuff back so that |I can share it with the kids."

Gery Verbruggen has, of course, tremendous international experience and knows this Bowling Pedralbes pretty well.

"It was a little bit tighter this afternoon than in the practise session this morning," he commented. "But I had a good feeling when I was bowling the tenminutes practice before the Singles. when I came to lanes 1 and 2 there was some difference but I managed to figureout how big the difference was in my last couple of frames so I can keep on playing my game when I go back to that pair.

"I don't know yet who I will be playing with in the doubles tomorrow. I think we're going to have a little discussion. Actually, I don't care who I have to bowl with as we are four very good bowlers."

SINGLES - WOMEN

SINGLES - MEN