Russell; Uotila set the tone in Friday's qualifying in Helsinki

    01/14/12

    2012 European Bowling Tour #1

    Number of participants surpasses 400-mark; cut for 44th place is now 1302 (217 avg.)

    201112PBARonnieRussell.jpg2011EBT18PasiUotila.jpgRonnie Russell (pictured left), United States, and Pasi Uotila (right), Finland, set the tone on the penultimate qualifying day in the Brunswick Ballmaster Open Friday at Tali Bowling Center in Helsinki, Finland.

    Uotila, one of four three-time Ballmaster Open winners (Simo Vähäkorpela, Lasse Lintilä, and two-time defending champion, Mika Koivuniemi, all Finland, are the others) started the day with games of 268, 216, 222, 232, 259 and 257 en route to overtake the qualifying lead with 1454 and an average of 242.33.

    PBA exempt player Russell, who fell to second place with 1423, countered in the evening squad with 1455 (242.50) to regain the lead by one pin. The three-time regional champion had games of 201, 234, 236, 247, 279 and 258.

    2011BWCKristaPollanen2.jpg2011EBT04PascalWinternheimer.jpgKrista Pöllänen (left), Finland, became the first female squad leader this year, as the World Games and European Champions Cup winner rolled a 1347 scratch series (224.50 avg.) and added 48 pins handicap to jump into sixth place in the overall standings with 1395 total.

    The only other woman in the top 44 is Cassie Staudinger, Australia, in 36th place with 1317. German national team member Pascal Winternheimer (right) was the only other player who cracked the top 10 Friday. Winternheimer was second to Russell in Squad 12 with 1386, good for eighth place.

    2011EBT17ErikAndersin.jpgErik Andersin (right) missed the tournament's first 300 game in this squad by just one pin. His 299 in the fourth game helped the Swede grab 35th place with 1317. With 403 players, 366 men and 37 women, from 17 countries in the books, Finnish international Joonas Jehkinen holds the 44th and last spot to advance with 1302 or an average of 217.

    Qualifying continues on Saturday with Squads 13-16 at 8 a.m., noon, 4 and 8 p.m. local time (CET -1) and concludes with the Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m.

    2012BallmasterLogo_small.jpg The 42nd Brunswick Ballmaster Open is the first of five "EBT Gold" events, the second-highest EBT category, in the 2012 season. The tournament will be held from Friday Jan. 6 through Sunday Jan. 15, 2012 at 36-lane Tali Bowl in Finland's capital city Helsinki.

    Players will compete for total prize money of 90.300 Euro with 12.000 Euro going to the winner, 8.000 to the runner-up and 4.000 and 3.000 to the third and fourth place finishers, respectively.

    Note: As a consequence of the Finnish tax regulations, there will be a tax on prize money for non-Finnish participants. The tax, which is 15% of any prize, will be deducted from the prizes by the organizer.

    Qualifying of the 2012 Brunswick Ballmaster Open runs through Saturday, Jan. 14, and ends with Squad 16 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m. local time (CET -1) on Saturday night. Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    The BBO 2012 features a 39.5 feet lane conditioning pattern..

    A total of 48 players - the top 44 from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad - will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Jan. 15. No byes will be given in this tournament.

    The finals are similar to the old PBA format. All 48 finalists will bowl 8 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16 who will advance to the match play portion with the pinfall of Round 1 being carried forward

    Those 16 will bowl 15 games of round robin match play. Players earn 30 bonus pins for each match won and 15 points for a tied match. The top 4 players after 23 games including bonus will determine the champion in a traditional stepladder final.

    The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, the 12.000 Euro top prize and 150 ranking points.

    2011EBT01KristaPollanen_small.jpg201112PBAMikaKoivuniemi_small.jpg Reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi (pictured left) is the two-time defending Ballmaster Open champion. In the 2012 title match, the "Big Finn" topped fellow PBA champion Sean Rash, United States, 236-191, to claim his third career Ballmaster title.

    2009 World Games champion Krista Pöllänen (right), Finland, finished the tournament in ninth place to win the women's ranking.

    2012EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2012 European Bowling Tour consists of 22 tour stops in 17 countries including two Platinum, five Gold, eight Silver and seven Satellite tournaments.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament such as the Brunswick Ballmaster Open gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

    The top 16 men and the top 16 women at the end of the 2012 season qualify for the sixth EBT Masters to be held Sept. 23rd, 2013 at BNC Bowling Center in Bratislava, Slovakia.

    WBTLogo_small.jpg The Ballmaster is also the first event on World Bowling Tour, which was inaugurated in 2011. The 2012 WBT consists of 14 tournaments in America, Asia, Europe and Australia - five in the United States and one each in Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Kuwait and Thailand,.

     


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    2012 Brunswick Ballmaster Open - Qualifying Standings after Squad 12/16


    The top 44 plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad will qualify for the finals on Sunday, Jan. 15.

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