Mega Place Bowling Club in Chania, Crete, Greece (Sept. 21-28, 2009)

Ryan Press from Northern Ireland leaped three spots during the second block of eight games en route to overtake the lead in the men's European Champions Cup Friday at Mega Place Bowling Club in Chania, Crete, Greece.

Press, who posted 1854 on the short oil pattern, had an almost identical score on the long oil pattern when he rolled games of 196, 238, 233, 274, 234, 257, 214 and 209 for an 1855 series, the second highest of the day. His 3709 pinfall total, an average of 231.81 over 16 games, propelled him atop the leaderboard.

3-time World Champion Martin Larsen (pictured right), Sweden, slipped leaped one spot into second place behind a 1738 series with 3663. Giannis Stathatos, representing the host country Greece, chalked up the day-best 1905 series to jump from 16th to third place with 3615.

Germany's Michael Krämer (left) used a 1765 series to leap from 7th to 4th with 3610. Darren Cundy (right), England, felled 1752 pins to leap one spot into fifth place with 3601.

Arturs Levikins, Latvia, slipped from second to sixth place behind a 1608 series, while short oil leader Nico Joris, Belgium, fell to 7th place with 3549 due to a sup-par 1567 performance.

Rounding out the top 8 is Lluis Montfort, Catalonia, who added 1715 to the 1824 from yesterday for 3539 or an average of 221.19. Defending champion Thomas Gross rolled the second highest series on long oil, 1797, to make up some ground en route to sit in 11th place with 3520.

The men are done for today and bowl their third and final block on dual lane condition (one lane with short oil, one lane with long oil) on Saturday afternoon and evening. The women's Group A concludes the preliminaries on Friday evening while Group B will follow on Saturday morning.

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 second block on long oil