Dutch 'Meisjes' set two EYC records to lead Girls Team event after three games

The Dutch Meisjes (girls) set two championship records en route to take the lead in the five-player Team event at halftime in the 20th European Youth Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece. The Netherlands is the defending champion in this discipline.

Lisanne Breeschoten, Bianca Wiekeraad, Mandy Meka, Kelly Plummen and Carmen Haandrikman started the day with 1049 and 1019, 49 and 19 pins over a 200 average, and finished with 1158 for 3226 pinfall total, an average of 215.07. Picture courtesy of Charly Blom.

The 1158 game and the 3226 three-game total were the championship records No. 4 and No. 5 at 24-laner Strike Bowling Club. The Dutch girls broke the previous record for one game (1092) set by England in the year 2000 by 58 pins. Breeschoten led the way with 269 followed by Wiekeraad (245), Plummen (233), Haandrikman (211) and Meka (200). Breeschoten, Plummen and Haandrikman won the gold medal in Trios yesterday.

England also lost the three-game record set in 2002 (3074). Wiekeraad led the team with 702, the second-highest individual series of the day. She was followed by Kelly (686), daughter of Dutch adult women national coach Ton Plummen, Breeschoten (655), Haandrikman (595) and Meka (588). All but Meka are among the top 24 players in All Events after 15 of 18 games. Plummen sits second place with a 215.60 average over 15 games.

Trailing the Netherlands by 87 pins to sit in second place is Sweden with 3139 and an average of 209.27 Viktoria Johansson, Caroline Jonsson, Jenny Johansson, Sanna Hellden and Rebecka Larsen led the field after two games behind 1064 and 1073 but dropped to second despite finishing with 1002.

Larsen (back row, second from left) rolled the highest three-game set of the day with 714 (267, 241, and 206) to move into fourth place in the All Events standings.

Third place belongs to the English team with Katrina Maciver, Rachel Cox, Danielle Hopcroft and Doubles champions Sarah Overall and Hayley White with 3042 (202.80), 97 pins behind Sweden and 184 pins behind leader Netherlands.

The English girls had games of 1013, 1056 and 973. Lefty Sarah Overall (second from right) led the team with 694 and is tied for 10th place in All Events now. White (far right) is third trailing Plummen by mere six pins.

84 pins off the pace for the medals is Team Germany with Melanie Birlinger, Cosima Fitz, Natascha Kögler, Janin Ribguth and Tina Hulsch. The Germans started with back-to-back 997 games and closed out the set with 964 to sit in fourth place with 2958 pinfall total and an average of 197.20.

Kögler (center) led the team with 635. All events leader Janin Ribguth (second from right) started with 247 but ended up with a sub-par 593 series behind games of 180 and 166. With the final three games in the team event to go on Friday, Ribguth has a comfortable 99-pin cushion over Plummen averaging 221.2 for her 15 games.

Rounding out the top 5 is the team from Belgium. Carolin Witvrouwen, Lore Cavens, Anneleen Mortier, Kaat van den Driessche and Valerie Van Haver checked in with 2894 and an average of 192.93.

Witvrouwen (back row, right), who holds the girls high game of 278 since the Trios event, led the way with 660 and is currently 8th in All Events. Van den Driessche had 621. Picture courtesy of Arny Goossens.

Next are 6. France, 2822; 7. Ireland, 2759; 8. Denmark, 2758; 9. Russia, 2725; 10. Austria, 2559; 11. Greece, 2488; and 12. Scotland, 2479.

Mere twelve of the total 23 countries in the girls division were able or willing to send a complete girls team to the 20th European Youth Championships in Greece, the major international event of the entire year on the youth calendar.

That means that only 60 of the total 103 girls compete in the team event, while the other 43 players from Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Moldova, Norway, Poland, South Africa and Ukraine, including the substitutes of the 12 countries competing in the team event plus the necessary seven pacers roll their six-game block in one the booster teams: 12 lanes for the team event, 10 lanes for the booster teams.

Not to mention that those 43 players are eligible to win gold in All Events and even the Masters. What a strange (bowling) world we live in.


Girls Team Results

Girls All Events