Belgium's Nico Joris averaged 247.75 on the short oil pattern to lead the men's division in the 32nd European Champions Cup after the first block of 8 games with 1982 pinfall total. Joris had seven games between 221 and 279 (2) and a low game of 202 to lead the field of 36 players from 35 countries by 41 pins.

Arturs Levikins, Latvia, finished with 1941 including 279 and 275 to land in second place with Group A leader Martin Larsen (pictured right), Sweden, in third with 1925.

Ryan Press, Northern Ireland, is a distant fourth with 1854 followed by Alexander Rauscher, Austria, with 1851 and Darren Cundy, England, with 1849.

German champion Michael Krämer is 7th with 1845. Rounding out the top 8 is Lluis Montfort, Catalonia, with 1824.

Defending ECC champion Thomas Gross (left), is 14th with 1723. Austria is the only country that has two competitors in the event.

The men will return on Friday morning and afternoon for the second block on long oil. The women will complete their second block on Thursday.

The ECC features the national champions or ranking leaders - one man and one woman per country - of the European Tenpin Bowling Federation member federations plus the defending champions.

All players will bowl three 8-game blocks (a total of 24 games) preliminaries over three days: Block 1 on short oil, Block 2 on long oil and Block 3 on short/long oil (left lane short, right lane long).

The top 8 players after the preliminaries will qualify for the single-elimination final in best-of-three games format. In each round the highest seeded player will bowl the lowest seeded player, the 2nd highest vs. the 2nd lowest, etc.) based on the standings after the preliminaries.

 

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Men's Division - Standings after the first block on short oil

Pos	Player	Country	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6	G7	G8	Block 1	Avg.
1.	Nico Joris	Belgium	265	234	257	279	245	202	221	279	1982	247.75
2.	Arturs Levikins	Latvia	226	226	275	219	213	256	279	247	1941	242.63
3.	Martin Larsen	Sweden	225	245	247	202	269	222	268	247	1925	240.63
4.	Ryan Press	Northern Ireland	244	222	187	286	223	225	220	247	1854	231.75
5.	Alexander Rauscher	Austria	195	183	259	222	201	268	256	267	1851	231.38
6.	Darren Cundy	England	246	181	231	221	258	216	279	217	1849	231.13
7.	Michael Krämer	Germany	268	237	214	188	221	195	276	246	1845	230.63
8.	Lluis Montfort	Catalonia	196	214	274	195	224	247	195	279	1824	228.00
9.	Ievgeny Petrovsky	Ukraine	211	200	223	255	234	233	255	199	1810	226.25
10.	Gennady Sidorov	Russia	236	235	233	204	233	247	215	186	1789	223.63
11.	Kristijonas Sergejevas	Lithuania	173	230	234	205	205	259	233	215	1754	219.25
12.	Matej Fegus	Slovenia	184	191	194	242	269	211	226	213	1730	216.25
13.	Or Aviram	Israel	212	247	151	203	178	277	225	236	1729	216.13
14.	Thomas Gross	Austria	175	191	213	225	204	244	278	193	1723	215.38
15.	Federico Rossi	Italy	205	207	186	240	222	269	158	224	1711	213.88
16.	Giannis Stathatos	Greece	191	201	243	232	219	226	217	181	1710	213.75
17.	Steinthor Johannsson	Iceland	216	175	202	270	169	211	200	256	1699	212.38
18.	Anthony Fabre	France	159	267	224	195	208	251	187	207	1698	212.25
19.	Björn Einar Rudshagen	Norway	202	234	257	223	210	192	185	190	1693	211.63
20.	Dian Dinev	Bulgaria	277	203	193	195	257	176	190	196	1687	210.88
21.	Larry Vontobel	Switzerland	151	171	231	196	233	225	234	227	1668	208.50
22.	Tamas Szabo	Hungary	203	228	189	239	209	161	185	234	1648	206.00
23.	Dmitry Stepuk	Belarus	227	234	187	159	181	184	235	235	1642	205.25
24.	Kostas Kyriakou	Cyprus	256	172	233	175	206	188	184	221	1635	204.38
25.	Ladislav Bitto	Slovakia	171	149	213	213	246	215	194	188	1589	198.63
26.	Kenneth Arpa	Malta	190	243	171	213	211	199	204	149	1580	197.50
27.	Brian Gillespie	Scotland	222	160	184	222	203	253	147	178	1569	196.13
28.	Harald Scheuer	Luxembourg	188	211	195	188	164	191	204	213	1554	194.25
29.	Emil Polanisz	Poland	168	150	198	222	200	223	173	214	1548	193.50
30.	Ari Savola	Finland	151	155	231	177	196	181	200	219	1510	188.75
31.	Ettore Baciocchi	San Marino	160	214	162	192	191	169	171	190	1449	181.13
32.	Mustafa Onur	Turkey	159	165	142	189	122	206	238	182	1403	175.38
33.	Ion Ioancea	Romania	189	169	159	158	157	171	198	187	1388	173.50
34.	Matt Southwell	Guernsey	162	176	172	215	173	143	189	158	1388	173.50
35.	Rostislav Kala	Czech Republic	165	223	158	150	174	189	166	161	1386	173.25
36.	Nikolay Babyuk	Moldova	145	157	156	187	128	193	158	167	1291	161.38