English national team member Stuart Williams (pictured left) overtook the lead in the Ebonite International Luxembourg Open during the second qualifying squad Wednesday night X-Treme Bowling & Billard in Foetz, Luxembourg.

The 2007 World Ranking Masters champion, who earned an exemption for the 2009-2010 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour with a sixth-place finish in the PBA Tour Trials, had games of 200, 235, 216, 247, 243 and 226 to move to the top with 1367 pinfall total or an average of 227.83 for six games. Williams received a 250 Euro bonus for winning the squad.

Williams, who is currently the No. 6 in the European Bowling Tour rankings, has cashed ranking points in 10 of the 12 events this season including a second-place finish in the 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open earlier this month (watch the video of the finals here).

The big winner, however, was Mats Maggi (right) from Belgium, who started his six-game block with the first 300-game of the tournament. Maggi will receive a 1.000 Euro bonus, equivalent to finishing fourth in the tournament, from sponsor Ebonite for accomplishing the feat.

Maggi finished with 1325 to move into second place in the overall qualifying standings. Squad 1 leader Alexander Tarsoly, Hungary, slipped two spots to third place with 1279.

The Ebonite International Luxembourg Open is the 13th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Challenger" events. The tournament will be held from Oct. 20-25, 2009 at X-Treme Bowling & Billard in Foetz, Luxembourg, and offers total prize fund of 35.000 Euro, or about 52,350 U.S. dollars. The winner will receive the 4.000 Euro top prize.

Qualifying runs through Saturday, Oct. 24, and ends with Squad 14 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m. local time (GMT +3) on Saturday night.

A total of 50 players - the top 44 from the qualifying (six games) and top 6 from the Desperado Squad - will advance to the finals on Sunday, Oct. 25. The top 14 qualifiers will earn one bye and will be automatically seeded into Final Round 2.

The remaining 36 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch. The top 18, seeded 15th-32nd, will join the top 14 qualifiers in single-elimination matches over two games total pinfall. The highest seed bowls the lowest seed, the second highest bowls the second lowest, etc.

The single-elimination finals start with the Round of 32. The field is cut to 16, 8, 4 and then 2 who will vie for the title and 4.000 Euro top prize.

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Hungarian Alexander Tarsoly leads first qualifying squad in Ebonite International Luxembourg Open

 

Qualifying Standings after Squad 2/14

Pos	Player	Country	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6	Pins	Avg.	Hc	Total
1.	Stuart Williams	England	200	235	216	247	243	226	1367	227.83		1367
2.	Mats Maggi	Belgium	300	205	163	205	216	236	1325	220.83		1325
3.	Alexander Tarsoly	Hungary	212	229	211	193	192	242	1279	213.17		1279
4.	Nick Plummen	Netherlands	187	234	180	245	181	206	1233	205.50		1233
5.	Ives Van Eyken	Belgium	248	224	157	190	179	231	1229	204.83		1229
6.	Guy Caminsky	South Africa	179	212	215	158	203	256	1223	203.83		1223
7.	Manuel Mrosek	Germany	217	203	201	225	203	168	1217	202.83		1217
8.	Michael Coussens	Belgium	190	197	203	169	226	216	1201	200.17		1201
9.	Phil Schuett	Germany	195	230	174	200	174	211	1184	197.33		1184
10.	Laurent Lecomte	Belgium	182	211	175	197	203	209	1177	196.17		1177
11.	Dominic Barrett	England	177	202	204	201	204	183	1171	195.17		1171
12.	Rafaël Janssens	Belgium	164	184	208	164	253	196	1169	194.83		1169
13.	Jeff Rodrigue-Bailey	United States	190	182	178	201	200	193	1144	190.67		1144
14.	Thomas Caldwell	Germany	210	184	232	169	201	145	1141	190.17		1141
15.	Christian Lanoy	Belgium	201	175	212	197	176	167	1128	188.00		1128
16.	Othello Pescarolo	Luxembourg	200	233	150	198	180	160	1121	186.83		1121
17.	Jean-Claude Haus	Luxembourg	166	195	201	202	176	180	1120	186.67		1120
18.	Laurent Kaiser	Belgium	225	168	169	168	199	191	1120	186.67		1120
19.	Florian Axt	Germany	190	179	194	182	202	161	1108	184.67		1108
20.	Romain Oberweis	Luxembourg	186	212	198	118	214	179	1107	184.50		1107
21.	Junior Esponcilla	Luxembourg	178	139	195	195	203	195	1105	184.17		1105
22.	Eric Rulot	Luxembourg	177	172	155	178	213	206	1101	183.50		1101
23.	Francois Louw	South Africa	173	234	197	174	185	136	1099	183.17		1099
24.	Kristof Peeters	Belgium	200	212	169	174	159	172	1086	181.00		1086
25.	Ton Plummen	Netherlands	168	159	179	140	252	188	1086	181.00		1086
26.	Luc Verjans	Belgium	183	155	178	172	211	183	1082	180.33		1082
27.	Harald Scheuer	Luxembourg	168	171	165	180	188	207	1079	179.83		1079
28.	Glenn Verlinden	Belgium	138	190	227	185	175	164	1079	179.83		1079
29.	Kelly Plummen	Netherlands	146	166	177	185	160	192	1026	171.00	48	1074
30.	Jeff Brons	Luxembourg	192	173	189	162	181	175	1072	178.67		1072
31.	Andy Willems	Luxembourg	191	203	184	137	186	169	1070	178.33		1070
32.	Sacha Vitali	Luxembourg	173	212	177	198	167	139	1066	177.67		1066
33.	Pascal Pipart	Luxembourg	172	181	135	188	192	193	1061	176.83		1061
34.	David Manderscheid	Luxembourg	227	169	138	212	180	133	1059	176.50		1059
35.	Olivier Braine	Belgium	152	167	199	189	168	180	1055	175.83		1055
36.	John Schmitz	Belgium	173	153	174	168	168	214	1050	175.00		1050
37.	Jean Louis Francois	Luxembourg	148	155	170	165	184	222	1044	174.00		1044
38.	Noel De Lazzer	Luxembourg	171	177	163	171	189	172	1043	173.83		1043
39.	Heiko Küppers	Germany	188	256	148	126	138	186	1042	173.67		1042
40.	Jan De Wandeleer	Belgium	145	231	175	147	164	157	1019	169.83		1019
41.	Severine Schwarz	Luxembourg	138	174	197	191	116	153	969	161.50	48	1017
42.	Carina Benavente	Luxembourg	115	168	182	185	167	139	956	159.33	48	1004
43.	Piia Pearce	Luxembourg	180	142	146	174	164	149	955	159.17	48	1003
44.	Phil De Corte	Belgium	165	166	161	184	150	164	990	165.00		990
45.	Jean Mercatoris	Luxembourg	171	157	146	155	184	155	968	161.33		968
46.	Christophe Janse	Luxembourg	180	163	167	172	144	115	941	156.83		941
47.	Patrick Leitienne	Luxembourg	123	118	178	194	177	148	938	156.33		938
48.	Bryan Pearce	Luxembourg	135	143	135	168	208	141	930	155.00		930
49.	Jim Pearce	Luxembourg	132	148	145	130	168	200	923	153.83		923
50.	Michel Baars	Netherlands	131	152	175	144	130	187	919	153.17		919
51.	Claude Oberweis	Luxembourg	166	185	134	133	139	161	918	153.00		918
52.	Mike Grandgenet	Luxembourg	132	142	149	184	159	147	913	152.17		913
53.	Jeroen Storms	Belgium	154	149	168	140	134	161	906	151.00		906
54.	Claudia Benavente	Luxembourg	156	145	179	110	155	104	849	141.50	48	897
55.	Hendrik-Jan Van Vuure	Luxembourg	139	119	165	155	118	186	882	147.00		882
56.	Nora Turci	Luxembourg	152	161	136	119	118	102	788	131.33	48	836