Lakeside Superbowl Nuneaton in Nuneaton, England (Dec. 2-6, 2009)

The Ebonite English Open 2009 got underway this afternoon at Lakeside Superbowl Nuneaton in Nuneaton, England. The first two qualifying squad were an all-English affair in which 15 men and 4 women took to the lanes.

Gemma Tsappis (pictured left) rollercoastered her way into the lead in Squad 1 with 1282 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour. Tsappis started with 233 and 224, then had low games of 147 and 161, but rebounded with 240 and 229, an average of 205.67 over six games.

Squad 2 leader Dan French (right) had five games between 203 and 237 and a low game of 191 to overtake the lead by 10 pins with 1291 pinfall total and an average of 215.33.

Richard Teece averaged 213.17 to sit in third place with 1279. He was followed by Hayley Rumkee, who chalked up 1273 including handicap.

Three more players cracked the 1200-bar, Anthony Swallow (1248), Paul Walker (1209) and Mark Smith (1203).

The Ebonite English Open 2009 is the 14th and penultimate stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and the last of the Tour's four "Challenger" events. The tournament will be held from Tuesday Dec. 2 through Sunday Dec. 6, 2009 at Lakeside Superbowl Nuneaton, a 24-laner in Nuneaton, England. Players will compete for total prize money of 32.400 British Pounds or approx. 35.550 Euro.

Qualifying ends on Saturday, Dec. 5, with the 15th qualifying squad followed by the ultimate chance to qualify, the one-game Desperado Squad at 11pm.

All players bowl at least one six-game block with unlimited re-entries allowed. A total of 50 players will advance to the finals, the top 46 from the qualifying plus the top 4 Desperados. The top 2 qualifying leaders earn four byes, places 3-6 receive three and places 7-10 get two byes.

The other 40 finalists will bowl 6 games starting from scratch. The top 24 advance to the second round and play another 3 games with the pinfall from Round 1 carried forward. The top 12 advance to best-of-three games single-elimination finals.

In each of the matches in the single-elimination finals, the highest seeded player will meet the lowest seeded player, the second highest seeded player will meet the second lowest seeded player, etc.

The field will be cut to 14, 8, 4 and then 2, who will bowl for the title with 5.000 British Pounds or almost 5.500 Euro going to the winner. England's Kirsten Penny is the defending champion.

 

 

 

Ebonite English Open 2009 - Qualifying Standings after Squad 2