Frederik Øhrgaard leads the top 16 players into single-elimination match play round

03/14/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #5

O'Neill rolls the 8th 300 game in the Brunswick Euro Challenge early Sunday morning

2010EBT05IldemaroRuiz2.jpg2010EBT05BillONeill2.jpgThe first round of the finals in the Brunswick Euro Challenge featuring players placed 17 through 64 after qualifying started 7.45 a.m. at Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France.

U.S. Open champion Bill O'Neill (pictured left), the front-runner in this season's PBA Player of the Year race, Venezuelan international Ildemaro Ruiz (right), 4-time European Bowling Tour ranking champion Gery Verbruggen, Belgium, and Malaysian international Zulmazran Zulkifli, came out of the gates quickly.

The foursome started the first game on lanes 25 and 26. Zulkifli checked in with the "low" score of 268, Verbruggen started with a spare and went off the sheet for 290, Ruiz had the front 11 but left one pin standing on his fill ball for 299 and two-time PBA champion O'Neill posted the 8th 300 game of this year's event.

2010EBT05FrederickOhrgaard3.jpg2010EBT05JeanMarcLebon.jpgO'Neill, Ruiz and Verbruggen felled 889 pins. All four players made the second cut to top 16, who will join the top 16 qualifiers in single-elimination match play in best-of-three games format.

Dane Frederik Øhrgaard (left), who had a 300 game during qualifying, fired games of 245, 255, 269, 276, 238 and 277 to lead the round with 1560 pinfall total and an average of 260. Øhrgaard earned the No. 17 seed and will meet No. 16 Mathias Årup, Sweden, in the Round of 32.

Jean Marc Lebon (right), Belgium, beat out PBA champion Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, by 9 pins for the 16th and final spot to advance with 1391 (231.83 avg.). Lebon will take on qualifying leader Anthony Pepe, United States.

Round of 32 Match-ups


#1 Anthony Pepe, United States vs. #32 Jean Marc Lebon, Belgium
#2 Mike Fagan, United States vs. #31 Dennis Eklund, Sweden
#3 Osku Palermaa, Finland vs. #30 Mik Stampe, Denmark
#4 Nico Joris, Belgium vs. #29 Steffen Wendlandt, Germany
#5 Norm Duke, United States vs. #28 Malin Glendert, Sweden
#6 Yoan Alix, France vs. #27 Joonas Jähi, Finland
#7 Nina Flack, Sweden vs. #26 Martin Larsen, Sweden
#8 Jari Ratia, Finland vs. #25 Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, United States
#9 Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland vs. #24 Jens Muth, Germany
#10 Mai Ginge Jensen, Denmark vs. #23 PJ Haggerty, United States
#11 Adrian Ang, Malaysia vs. #22 Bill O'Neill, United States
#12 Parker Bohn III, United States vs. #21 Thomas Larsen, Denmark
#13 Krista Pöllänen, Finland vs. #20 Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela
#14 Tony Ranta, Finland vs. #19 Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia
#15 Rob Thurlby, England vs. #18 Gery Verbruggen, Belgium
#16 Mathias Årup, Sweden vs. #17 Frederik Øhrgaard, Denmark

2010EBT05BECLogo.jpg The Brunswick Euro Challenge will be held from March 5-14, 2010 at 28-laner Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin near Paris, France. The tournament is the fifth event of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Gold" tournaments.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled, the 2010 EBT Tour features 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 7 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

Players will compete for total prize money of 90,000 Euro (currently about US$123,250), which includes special prizes for "Women" and "B Bowlers". The tournament winner will receive the 13.000 Euro top prize.

200910PBA11MikeFagan2_small.jpg2009VOMaiGingeJensen_small.jpg There is also a special side event called "300-Game Pot Play". All players who have paid a 50 Euro entry fee in advance and roll a 300 game during the tournament will determine the winner in a one-ball roll-off at the end of the tournament. The winner is guaranteed a minimum of 2,500 Euro.

2-time PBA champion Mike Fagan (left), United States, is the defending champion. The 29-year-old righthander will be targeting to make his third consecutive BEC title match. Mai Ginge Jensen (right), Denmark, finished third last year to win the women ranking.

ValckeBowling.jpg For the third consecutive year, the 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge sponsored by Brunswick Bowling will be organized by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling.

In addition to sponsoring the event, Brunswick will be conducting seminar and training sessions for bowlers, coaches, center mechanics, center managers and proprietors. Click on the link to view the complete Seminar Schedule (pdf file).

The 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge will be contested on a 39 feet long sport pattern of medium difficulty (MS Excel file).

A total of 64 players qualified for the finals on Sunday, March 14. The top 16 players received one bye and will seeded 1-16 in Round 2.

The following 48 players qualified for Round 1:
  • Players positioned 17th-52nd in qualifying
  • the top 6 from a separate standing for the squads 1-5 conducted March 5-7, who are not among the top 52
  • the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

Those 48 bowled six games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16, who will meet the top 16 qualifiers in the first match play round. Match play is best-of-three games single-elimination. The No. 1 seed will take on No. 32, No. 2 bowls No. 31, etc.

The field will be cut to 16, 8 and then four, who will determine the champion in a stepladder final.

Eurosport2Logo_mini.jpgThe stepladder finals of the 2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge will be broadcasted live on Eurosport 2 Sunday, March 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. CET. Additional to the live broadcast, Eurosport 2 will air at least two more re-broadcasts in the weeks following the live coverage. Eurosport Asia-Pacific will also run the BEC 2010 final several times.

Due to TV requirements the schedule for Sunday, March 14, was adjusted to the following:
07:45 Final Round 1
11:00 Lane Maintenance
11:30 Final Round 2
14:00 Final Round 3
15:15 Final Round 5
16:30 Lane Maintenance
16: 55 Practice for Stepladder final
17:00-18:25 Final Round 5
18:25 TV Award Ceremony
18:30 300-Game Play Pot roll-off
18:45 Awards Ceremony

BowlingdigitalBanner.gif BowlingdigitalFlavioCuvaBeatGrauwiler_small.jpg Once again Bowlingdigital will cover the event live (commencing Thursday March 11) from Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin with results and updates after each round plus our much-anticipated high definition videos produced by Flavio Cuva and high quality photos by Beat Grauwiler (l-r).

Please use the left menu bar to get more information about format, schedule and prize money.

Click here to review Bowlingdigital's Live Coverage from the 2009 Brunswick Euro Challenge or click here to go straight to the video section. You will find more videos here.

 


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2010 Brunswick Euro Challenge - Tournament Preview

 


Standings after Round 1


The top 16 advance to join the top 16 qualifiers in single-elimination match play. All others eliminated, finish 33rd though 64th, earn 700 Euro.

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