PBA's Sean Rash paces Squad 6 to move into second place in Ballmaster Open

01/11/12

2012 European Bowling Tour #1

Estonia's Kert Truus holds on to the lead; cut for 44th place is now 1228 (204.67)

201112PBA05SeanRash3.jpg2012EBT01KertTruus.jpgSean Rash (pictured left) of the United States averaged 232.50 Tuesday evening at Tali Bowling Center in Helsinki, Finland to lead the sixth qualifying squad and to overtake second place in the overall standings in the Brunswick Ballmaster Open.

The four-time PBA champion, who made the TV show in each of the first five events of 2011 PBA World Series of Bowling, had games of 247, 192, 269, 227, 222 and 238 for 1395 six-game total to miss the pole position by ten pins.

Kert Truus (right), Estonia, held on to the lead with 1405 and an average of 234.17. Squad 1 leader Petteri Salonen, Finland, slipped to third place with 1393.

2011EBT17PerttuJussila2.jpg201112PBATommyJones.jpgPerttu Jussila (left), Finland, was second to Rah in Squad 6 with 1375 including high games of 259 and 249 en route to overtake fourth place. He was followed by compatriots Panu Nurmilo (1354), three-time Ballmaster winner Pasi Uotila (1343) and Jarmo Ahokas (1338) in fifth through seventh place.

Team USA member Tommy Jones (right) closed out his six-game series on Tuesday with a huge 278 game, which propelled the 13-time PBA champion and PBA Player of the Year 2005-06 into eighth place with 1318.

Rounding out the top 10 were Finns Sami Salin and Eemeli Hemmi with 1308 and 1307. Another two Finns cracked the 1300-bar on Tuesday. Samuli Tiainen and Timo Alho had 1305 and 1302, respectively, to leap into 11th and 12th place.

201112PBA05OskuPalermaa2.jpg2011EBT04DaryaKovalova.jpgFour-time European Bowling Tour ranking winner, Osku Palermaa (left), Finland, chalked up 1287 pins to sit in 13th place.

Daria Kovalova (right), Ukraine, is still the best of now 26 women and the sole woman in the top 44 in 38th place with 1242 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

With 2987 players from seven countries in the books, Asko Aravirta, Finland, holds the 44th and last place to qualify for the finals on Sunday, Jan. 15, with 1228 or an average of 204.67.

Qualifying continues on Thursday with Squads 7, 8 and 9 at 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. local time (CET -1).

2012BallmasterLogo_small.jpg The 42nd Brunswick Ballmaster Open is the first of five "EBT Gold" events, the second-highest EBT category, in the 2012 season. The tournament will be held from Friday Jan. 6 through Sunday Jan. 15, 2012 at 36-lane Tali Bowl in Finland's capital city Helsinki.

Players will compete for total prize money of 90.300 Euro with 12.000 Euro going to the winner, 8.000 to the runner-up and 4.000 and 3.000 to the third and fourth place finishers, respectively.

Note: As a consequence of the Finnish tax regulations, there will be a tax on prize money for non-Finnish participants. The tax, which is 15% of any prize, will be deducted from the prizes by the organizer.

Qualifying of the 2012 Brunswick Ballmaster Open runs through Saturday, Jan. 14, and ends with Squad 16 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m. local time (CET -1) on Saturday night. Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

The BBO 2012 features a 39.5 feet lane conditioning pattern..

A total of 48 players - the top 44 from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad - will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Jan. 15. No byes will be given in this tournament.

The finals are similar to the old PBA format. All 48 finalists will bowl 8 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16 who will advance to the match play portion with the pinfall of Round 1 being carried forward

Those 16 will bowl 15 games of round robin match play. Players earn 30 bonus pins for each match won and 15 points for a tied match. The top 4 players after 23 games including bonus will determine the champion in a traditional stepladder final.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, the 12.000 Euro top prize and 150 ranking points.

2011EBT01KristaPollanen_small.jpg201112PBAMikaKoivuniemi_small.jpg Reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi (pictured left) is the two-time defending Ballmaster Open champion. In the 2012 title match, the "Big Finn" topped fellow PBA champion Sean Rash, United States, 236-191, to claim his third career Ballmaster title.

2009 World Games champion Krista Pöllänen (right), Finland, finished the tournament in ninth place to win the women's ranking.

2012EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2012 European Bowling Tour consists of 22 tour stops in 17 countries including two Platinum, five Gold, eight Silver and seven Satellite tournaments.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament such as the Brunswick Ballmaster Open gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

The top 16 men and the top 16 women at the end of the 2012 season qualify for the sixth EBT Masters to be held Sept. 23rd, 2013 at BNC Bowling Center in Bratislava, Slovakia.

WBTLogo_small.jpg The Ballmaster is also the first event on World Bowling Tour, which was inaugurated in 2011. The 2012 WBT consists of 14 tournaments in America, Asia, Europe and Australia - five in the United States and one each in Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Kuwait and Thailand,.

 


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2012 Brunswick Ballmaster Open - Qualifying Standings after Squad 6/16


The top 44 plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Jan. 15.

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