Mads Sandbaekken from Norway, the reigning World Youth Championships Masters champion, swept four-time European champion
Petteri Salonen, Finland, two-game-to-none to end the 2007 Men's European Championships at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria, with victory in the Masters competition. Sandbaekken, who turned 20 during the MEC last week, won the first game 230-226 and sealed the victory when she struck eight times in the first nine frames of game #2, 229-209. Salonen earned the silver medal while Mike Quarry, England and Dennis Eklund, Sweden shared the bronze.
Erik Andersin (left); Sweden, posted the highest three-game series in Final Round One in the 1st Maribor Open Strike Tournament with 728 pinfall total, an average of 242.66, to lead the top 14 players into the next round. Local bowler Tamaz Krizaj, 64, delighted his friends when he advanced in second position with 684. Third place belonged to the sole woman in the final, Ivonne Gross (right), Austria, with 683. 
Martin Larsen from Sweden, who led the field since Squad 17, won the qualifying in the 1st Maribor Open Strike Tournament at Strike Bowling Center in Maribor, Slovenia with 1512 six-game total, an average of 252.00. The two-time World Champion was the onyl player who cracked the 1500-bar in the tournament. Qualifying ends tonight with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad. A total of 56 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Sep. 16: The top 52 in the overall qualifying standings and the top 4 Desperados.
Nufar Herskovitch and Yahav Rabin captured the women's and men's Israeli National Individual Championship with a 2-1 victory in the best-of-three games finals at Bola Bowling in Holon, Israel on August 30th. Usually the champions book their tickets to the European Champions Cup, but not this year. "Israel cannot participate in the Europe Champions Cup in Luxemburg," Arie Fisher, president of the Israel Bowling Federation, stated. 
Matchroom Sport has announced the two teams to contest the seventh annual Weber Cup which takes place from October 19-21, 2007 at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. The Europeans are once again skippered by Sweden's Tomas Leandersson (left) while Tim Mack (right) is back as United States' Weber Cup team captain. 
Janne Monsen and Audun Boye Hansen won the women's and men's titles in the 2007 Evje Open International in Norway. Both players entered the five-player stepladder finals as the No. 1 seed, which had to be defeated twice to win the title. Hansen topped Jahn Kåre Haugen in a close match, 228-223, to seal the victory in the men's division worth 30.000 NOK (approx. 3.760 Euro). Monsen won the women's final in the decisive game against Heidi Thorstensen, 190-188, to earn 15.000 NOK. The Mixed Doubles title went to Ingunn Øien and Petter Hansen.
Multiple Austrian national champion Thomas Gross (pictured) averaged 254.00 in round robin match play en route to win the 2007 Prague Summer Cup at Best Bowling in Prague, Czech Republic. It was the second victory for the European Champion in Doubles (with Thomas Tybl) after 2005. Gross started the 8-player round robin with 289 and rolled a perfect game in game #4 en route to a 2242 seven-game total including 210 bonus. 
With the 29th Trofeu Internacional Ciutat de Barcelona, the 13th event of the 2007 European Bowling Tour, in the books, the top 8 men and the top 8 women in the European Rankings remained unchanged. European All Events champion Osku Palermaa (l.), Finland, and multiple World and European champion Kirsten Penny (r.), England, held on to the lead with 617 and 518 ranking points, respectively.
Way back in January 1992 the first Team Britain (as was) ranking event was held at Strykers Bushbury. Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven ranking events later the winner then is the winner now - Cliff Dew. His win has been a talking point – a massive 626 points ahead of Steve Thornton (below on the left) – an average about 20 pins better than any left or right handed player was able to make on the very flat pattern laid down this year.
Robert Andersson (l.) from Sweden won his second European Bowling Tour title this season after the Husqvarna International in April when he defeated No. 1 seeded Krista Pöllänen (r.), Finland, in the title match of the 29th Trofeu Internacional Ciutat de Barcelona, 218-206 (including handicap). In the opening match of the three-player stepladder finals, Andersson topped his team mate, Martin Larsen, 208-174. 
Chantal Statia and Tarik Samandar, Netherlands Antilles, are the surprising gold medalists in the girls and boys Masters in the Kingdom Games 2007 at Bowlingcentrum Wijndaelerduin in The Hague, Netherlands. In the best-of-five title match, Jacobs swept her opponent, Dutch Chantal Jacobs, 3-0, while Samandar came back from being down 1-0 against Nigel Maduro, Aruba, to win 3-1.
Jenny Billingham, England, and Andriy Vazhentsev, Ukraine, won the gold medals in the women's and men's bowling competition at the First European Sport Games in the Ukraine. Kiev (Kyiv), capital and largest city of the Ukraine, hosts the FESG from July 19 through 25, 2007 with fifteen non-Olympic sports including Tenpin Bowling are included into the Games. The bowling tournament was held at ‘5 Element' bowling center featuring one man and one woman from nine European Tenpin Bowling Federation member federations. 
The 12th tournament of the 2007 European Bowling Tour saw a lot of newcomers in the top 50 rankings including 12 Malaysian players receiving their first ranking points on the EBT. Kirsten Penny (r.), England, and Osku Palermaa, Finland remained atop the women's and men's rankings with 502 and 547 points, respectively. However, 3-time defending champions Britt Bröndsted, Denmark, and Paul Moor (l.), England, narrowed the gap to 67 and 15 points, resp.
Ghislaine van der Tol tied Aaron Kong from Malaysia 477-477 in the title match of the 3rd Storm San Marino Open and was declared the winner due the "highest last game" ruling. In the final over two games total pinfall, Kong led after game #1 by 20 pins, 222-202 (including 8 pins handicap) but van der Tol rebounded with a 275-game to Kong's 255 to level the match. According to the rules the highest last game made the difference and the Dutch won the title and the 10.000 Euro top prize. Is was the second consecutive EBT title for van der Tol, who won the women's Malta Open last month. 
The European Tenpin Bowling Federation (ETBF) Presidium has decided the dates and venues for the 2008 European Champions Cup (ECC) and the inaugural European Bowling Tour (EBT) Masters. The 31st ECC will be held at Bowling Treff in Duisburg, Germany, from October 20-26, 2008. The 1st EBT Masters 2008 featuring the top 16 women and the top 16 men of the 2007 European Bowling Tour rankings will be staged at Rollhouse Bowling Center in Ankara, Turkey, September 22-24, 2008.
The inaugural Austria Senior Open, the sixth event 2007 EBPA Seniors Tour, was held at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria. Italian Sergio Bellini (center) earned the title and the 2.000 top prize with a 219.92 scratch average over his 12 games. Christer Danielsson (left), Sweden, beat out American Barry Horne (right) for second place by one pin. Austrian Rene Bauer finished fourth. 
Malaysia's rising stars Zandra Aziela (right) and Siti Safiyah Amirah (left) battled it out for the title in the 5th Czech Open in a best-of-three game final. Aziela, the No. 2 seed, fired two huge games (226 and 246) to defeat top seeded Amirah, 2-0, en route to earn the title and the 2.000 Euro top prize. Most of the 178 participants from 15 countries must have been very surprised when they found out that the entire Malaysian national squad - men and women - participated in a tournament that offers less than 6.500 Euro total prize fund (approx. $8,740).
Lakeside Nuneaton hosted this year's QubicaAMF World Cup qualifying tournament for English players in mid-July and produced one very surprised winner and one that could only be described as a favorite. 3-time European ranking champion Paul Moor claimed his fifth World Cup qualifying win, while Jo Allsebrook's first Team England ranking win doesn't come much better than earning a trip to Russia 