The Malta Independent on Sunday
Sue Abela makes final stages, finishes in joint ninth place
The first World Singles Championships have been held in Limassol, Cyprus, organised by the local federation.
An incredible 71 nations from around the globe competed, in the hope of taking home the highest honours from this inaugural event, which is set to be repeated every four years with the second World Singles planned for 2016. The event was a massive success, not least of all due to the star-studded field of truly the world’s top tenpin bowlers in attendance.
Team Malta consisted of four bowlers, who earned the right to represent their country in a qualifying event, held by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association at the Eden SuperBowl’s facilities in St. Julian’s. The lucky four were: Sue Abela and Melissa Swift from the ladies division, and Rankin Camilleri and Justin Caruana Scicluna for the men.
Abela shows classic form in qualification
Malta’s Sue Abela seemed to take to the conditions at the Galactica Bowling Centre almost as if playing on her home lanes, as she began her quest with a good 1177 tally from her initial six games (196.1 average).
Her lowest of the series was a 182 in game six, although that was well countered by highs of 223 and 203. However, with bowling superstars taking part, such as Kelly Kubrick and Esther Cheah from the USA, Jolene Persson-Planefors and Rebecka Larsen from Sweden, and Latvian youngster Diana Zavjalova to name but a few, Abela knew that she had to do better in her second qualifying set of six, should she hope to make the top 24 among the ladies, and so go through to the five-round Final Stages.
Top eight was the ultimate goal, as those bowlers would be given an automatic pass to Final Stage 2, while the remaining 16 went head-to-head in Final Stage 1.
Ready as ever for the challenge, Sue came out aggressively on day two, opening with a solid 210, and then following up with an awesome brace of 269 and 264 in games eight and nine.
She started the back three games with a 207, followed up with a great 245 and finished with another 207, for 1402 on the day (233.6 ave), and a qualifying total of 2583 pins over twelve (215.2). That was enough to put the Maltese star in eighth place, and into the finals, skipping Final Stage 1.
Final Stage Two was played to a best-of-5-game format, and Abela’s opponent was Swede, Persson-Planefors. The Maltese bowler got off to a perfect start, just clinching the first game of the encounter 225-225, before then going 2-0 ahead with a 211-181 game two win.
Sue needed just one game from the remaining three to book a place in Final Stage 3, but the formidable Swede managed to recover and win the third game by a mere four pins (199-194), and then she also took game four 265-214 to set up a nail biting game five finale.
The nerves were showing as both bowlers stepped up for the all important decider, but Persson-Planefors was on a high, and won it in fantastic style, 268-217 to move on to Final Stage 3, and leave Abela in joint ninth place.
The Swede was then defeated 3-2 in the next round, by the eventual ladies’ champion, Kelly Kulick from the USA, who went on to beat fellow American Esther Cheah 212-207 in the one game semi-final, and then clinch the title against Latvia’s Diana Zavjalova, by just a two pin advantage in the grand final (228-226).
Melissa Swift placed a respectable 39th in the Ladies qualification round with a good 2290 total (190.8 ave), and was 145 pins short of qualifying with the top 24, whereas Justin Caruana Scicluna and Rankin Camilleri placed 49th and 56th respectively in the men’s qualification event.