Nick Froggatt from England started the penultimate qualifying squad in 27 place with 1314 six-game total, an average of 219.00, and was in danger to fall out of the top 28 in the qualifying of the Maribor Open in Slovenia.

About three and a half hours later the lefty had positioned himself in second place in the qualifying standings behind a 1490 series, an average of 248.33.

R-L The picture shows Froggatt and fellow countrymen Rob Kendall and Stuart Williams behind lanes 15 and 16, where Froggatt finished his set with his highest game. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Froggatt (right) had games of 236, 234, 256 and 217 and closed out his series with 268 and 279, just ten pins short of a 1500 series and 22 pins behind leader Martin Larsen (left) from Sweden, who remained atop the leaderboard with 1512 pinfall total and an average of 252.00.


Froggatt's compatriot and fellow lefty Paul Moor (left), the European Ranking champion of the past three seasons, had the second-highest score of Squad 25. Moor used high games of 254 and 256 for a 1405 series, good enough to move into 8th place.

Finn Jussi Lindgren hit 1400 sharp including a high game of 258 to overtake the 9th place.

 Five players cracked the 1300-bar bar in the penultimate qualifying squad. Swedes Dennis Eklund and Mathias Årup (right) chalked up 1370 and 1349, good enough for 13th and 19th place overall.

Klaus Lischka and Stefan Siarsky, both Germany, leaped to 26th and 30th place with 1329 and 1317, respectively. Luca Osella, Italy had 1309 to leap into 34 place.

Qualifying ends tonight with Squad 26 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad. A total of 56 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Sep. 16: The top 52 in the overall qualifying standings and the top 4 Desperados. The cut for the top 52 is currently 1245, a 207.50average, by Andrea Domeniconi, Italy.

Qualifiers 1-14 will earn two byes and will earn at least 1.200 Euro. German international Robert Wölki is the "man on the bubble" with 1364 (227.33). Qualifiers 15-28 will bypass the first round which guarantees them 800 Euro. Mathieu Berges (left), Switzerland, holds 28th place with 1321 (220.17).

The remaining 28 finalists, who have secured at least 500 Euro, will bowl 3 games starting from scratch. The top 14 will qualify for the second round and meet qualifiers 15-28. The top 14 after another 3-game set from scratch meet the top 14 qualifiers in Round #3.

The field will be trimmed to 16, 8 and then 4 in during the rounds 3 to 5 (same format as before). The four remaining players will bowl for the title and the 8.000 Euro top prize in a traditional stepladder format based on the standings after Round #5: No. 4 bowls No. 3, the winner meets No. 2 and the winner bowls No. 1 for the title.

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Maribor all the way through to the finals on Sunday, September 16. The four-player stepladder finals will be broadcasted live on Slovenian television in a two-hour show from Strike Bowling Center.