Mark Spiteri retains silver medal in ESBC

Mark Spiteri repeated his feat from 2015 by retaining the Silver medal during the European Seniors Bowling Championships (ESBC) held in Copenhagen. The 2016 edition attracted 892 top senior bowlers from 24 countries competing in what has become the largest international bowling event in Europe.

Mark had a good start in the Singles event where he hammered in a good series of 1332 to finish in fourth place among 178 bowlers, missing out on a bronze for merely 11 pins. Next up was the Doubles event where he paired 22nd, partnered by Paul Baldacchino, out of no fewer than121 teams. Another strong performance came in the Trios event where Mark was paired with Paul Baldacchino and Giancarlo Tolu. The team was close to the medal zone but eventually settled for seventh place from 206 teams. It is worth pointing out that the team from Malta registered a high game of 681 which is a new national record for the senior category.

Mark’s overall performance in the Singles, Doubles and Trios events meant that he qualified in fourth place for the Masters event which is the “Blue Riband” event of the championships, reserved for the top six bowlers overall. The Masters is played on a Round Robin basis between the top six bowlers of the championships, with all pins carried forward from the preceding 18 games and bonus points awarded for wins and high scores.

Mark lost his first two encounters which included the eventual winner Michael Wittendorff of Denmark. From then on Mark played brilliantly to climb from fourth to second place after consecutive wins against Paul Morris of England, Peter Broekmans from the Netherlands and Esa Nieminen of Finland. Mark registered a high game of 266 which gave him the momentum to overtake two opponents and claim the silver medal. Thus, Mark repeated last year’s performance ending up as the runner-up in the European Senior Championships.

The next edition will be held next year in Dublin.