Barrett takes over pole position in Vienna; four players from Squad 5 crack the top 8

English national team member Dominic Barrett (left) posted a 1425 six-game series in Squad 5 en route to overtake the pole position in the qualifying of the 5th Columbia 300 Vienna Open at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Barrett started with a 200-game, then averaged 245.00 for the last five games when he added 234, 258, 223, 266 and 244 to beat out Squad 4 leader Mike Machnig, Germany, for the lead by 8 pins.

Machnig (1417) and Gal Shemer (right) (1387), Israel, slipped to second and third place, respectively.

Walter Gonaus (left), Austria, improved on his winning score from Squad 2 (1321) and tied Shemer at 1387 but was ranked fourth due to his lower final game, 246 to 244. Ilya Krasitskiy, Russia, moved into fifth place with 1379.

Squad 1 leader Asgeir Thordarson, Iceland, slipped to sixth place with 1374.

Photos: Lars Müller/larsmueller.com

Jana Maresova (right), Czech Republic, was the fourth player from Squad 5, who cracked the top 8. Maresova had five games over 200 including a 258 high game but finished with a 172 low game for 1370 including 48 pins handicap, good for seventh place in the overall standings.

Rounding out the top 8 was Oliver Blase (left), Germany, with 1367 pinfall total.

Shemer and Christian Provaznik, Austria, held on to the lead in the Doubles event with 2743 six-game total and an average of 228.58. Machnig and Franz Hahn, Austria, remained second with 2726. Barrett and Michael Mayer, Austria, overtook the third place with 2714. Mayer added 1289 to Barrett's 1425.

The qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a unique doubles tournament. 10.230 Euro or approx. US$ 14,510 from the overall prize fund of 60.530 Euro ($85,850) will be given to the top 20 teams.

Each team rolls one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner. The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played).

The winners of the Doubles event will split 1.600 Euro or approx. US$2,270. World champions Martin Larsen and Robert Andersson, Sweden, are the defending champions.

Qualifying runs from Wednesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate Desperado Squad on Saturday evening, Oct. 20.

A total of 68 players from the qualifying will advance to the finals starting on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 8am:

• The eight players with the highest six-game blocks will earn one bye and will be seeded 1-8 in the match play round of 32
• players positioned 9th to 56th after qualifying
• the six leaders of Squad 1 through 6 not among the top 56 and
• the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

All but the top 8 qualifiers will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 24. Those 24 will be seeded 9-32 in the match play round of 32.

Match play rounds of 32, 16 and 8 are single-elimination, best-of-three games. The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded player, the second-highest seeded player vs. the second-lowest seeded player, etc.

The semi-finals and the championship match will be decided in one game. A major on the European Bowling Tour, bowlers will be competing for a top prize of 7.000 Euro ($9,930) and an overall prize fund of 60.530 Euro ($85,850).

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Vienna with updates after each round commencing October 17 all the way through to the finals on Sunday, October 21.