England's Angie Brown, Ron Oldfield sweep the titles in 2014 Flanders Senior Open

    07/22/14

    2014 ISBT #6

    Brown becomes the first player, men and women, to win multiple titles in the 2014 season; Brown (10 titles) and Oldfield (8 titles) are the all-time ISBT title leaders

    2014ISBT06AngieBrownRonOldfield.jpgEngland's Angie Brown and Ron Oldfield (pictured, l-r) swept the women's and men's titles in the 2014 Flanders Senior Open which concluded Sunday, July 20, at Euro Bowling in Deurne, Antwerp, Belgium.

    Brown, who won the women's title at the 1st Senior Open at Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany, earlier this month, become the first player, men and women, to win multiple titles on the 2014 International Seniors Bowling Tour.

    The sixth stop on the 2014 ISBT schedule attracted an entry list of 61 men and 18 women. The format for the tournament was two blocks of 6 games qualifying, with unlimited re-entries. For those not able to qualify through the main leaderboard, there were additional opportunities through Turbo games and a Desperado squad.

    Age bonus started at age 51 (1 pin per game), then increased a pin for every additional year of age with no limit. As with all ISBT events, there was a separate division for ladies.

    The tournament was played on the Kegel Bourbon Street pattern, which generally provides a reasonable scoring condition. Euro Bowling (pictured, click image to enlarge) always presents its own set of challenges, as half of each qualification squad is played on the 8 lanes upstairs, which have the Brunswick Pro Anvilane surface, and are dressed by a different lane machine to the Kegel Walker used for the lanes on the lower level. Additionally, upstairs is generally warmer than downstairs, adding to the challenge.

    From the first squad, the condition was indeed shown to be quite scoreable, with Georgio Desimio of Belgium leading with 1383 including age bonus. The second squad was not quite so high scoring and was won by Robert Vallons, Belgium, with 1326. A good score was posted by Dutch Farida Pascoal-Blom in the ladies section with 1268.

    The scoring pace then dramatically improved with big sets from Belgians Andre Geelen (1454) and Gunther Schollen (1449). The fourth squad also brought high scores, with Vallons again topping the board with 1353, closely followed by Pascoal-Blom with 1348, who moved into a convincing lead in the women's overall standings.

    In the fifth squad, Desimio again led, this time with 1433, while squad six went to Schollen with 1389. Squad seven was a small squad, with only 6 competitors, but former world champion Roger Pieters, Belgium, scored well to finish on top with 1456.

    2014ISBT06HermanWimmer.jpgSquad eight didn't run, and squad nine saw the arrival of many of the English competitors, who took the top places. Mo Singleton was easily top with 1465 and was followed by Ron Deacon (1408), while Karen Barfoot was top lady with 1272. However, the highlight of the squad was a great 300 game from Herman Wimmer (pictured left) in Game 4.

    Squad 10 saw a German at the top of the list, with Ekkehard Oette scoring 1362. The ladies section was led by Nadine Lavrut, France, with 1238. The last squad on Friday was led by Germans in both sections, Werner Laun in the men's with 1349, and Petra Duplois in the ladies with 1218.

    Saturday saw the last three qualification squads, the first being won by another German, Helmut Ulber, with 1389. In the ladies section, Angie Brown improved on her first entry with 1322 to move into second place in the overall standings, some 70 pins behind Pascoal-Blom. Belgium's Liliane Vintens was now in third place, 27 pins further behind.

    Qualification for the final stages in the women's section depended on the finishing places in the qualifying rounds. The top two women would go directly to the final round, with the players from 3 to 8 missing the first finals round.

    The men's section finals would also be determined by finishing places during qualification, with the top two progressing straight to the final (Round 4), with positions 3 to 6 and 7 to 10 receiving second and first round byes, respectively.

    After completion of the first Saturday qualification squad, the men's standings were led by Schollen with 2838, closely followed by Geelen with 2833. Despite his two squad wins, Desimio was lying third with 2816.

    Geelen then had another strong set to win the second qualifying block of the day with 1499, just ahead of English bowlers Frank Lindsay and Singleton. Lavrut led in the women's section with 1156 to ensure her place in the finals.

    The final qualifying squad was won by Ron Oldfield with 1471, with Jan Hodge, England, leading the ladies with 1218 to secure her finals position.

    Overall, the top qualifier for the final was Andre Geelen with 2953, some distance ahead of Mo Singleton (2878) and Ron Oldfield (England) 2855. The final qualification place fell to Mike Ince, England, in 28th place with 2561.

    The top of the ladies standings was unchanged, with Farida Pascoal-Blom leading with 2616, ahead of Angie Brown (2548), and Liliane Vintens (Belgium) on 2521. The lucky 13th place qualifier for the finals was Ruth Stander, England, on 2118.

    As well as those who had qualified through the main standings, four men and one woman qualified through the Turbo section, which left three finals places open through the Desperado squad.

    The two places in the men's section were contested by five men, the ladies spot was left unfilled as no lady entered. Jordi Roca of Belgium comfortably qualified by starting with a spare, then seven strikes in a row to finish with 264. His compatriot Victor Taeymans, Belgium had a double and turkey in his game to finish as the final qualifier with 243.

    For the men who had qualified through the Turbo and Desperado, and those from 11th to 28th in the main standings, there was an early start on Sunday to bowl four games starting from scratch to see who would progress further.

    Only the top 12 would bowl further, and there were a number of games over 250 bowled from those towards the top of the leaderboard. Robert Vallons, Belgium, was top bowler with 975 over his four games, closely followed by Pekka Tiironkoski of Finland. The cut for the next round was 860, bowled by Herman Wimmer, >Germany.

    The twelve who advanced were then joined by qualifiers 7 to 10 for a further four games, again starting from scratch. This block was won by Swede Christer Petersson with 953. The top eight would advance further, this position was shared by Lol Ellis, England, and Werner Laun, Germany.

    At the same time, the first women's final round took place, with four of the six bowlers moving forwards. Gisela Insinger, Germany, led the way with 794, while Yvette Murrath, Belgium, was the last to advance with 765.

    The next finals block saw four more bowlers from the qualification ranking joining those who were still playing. In the men's section, Herman Wimmer led with 1058, the cut for the sixth and last place to make the overall final fell to Ron Oldfield with 881, who scraped in by just four pins from Werner Laun.

    In the women's section, Jan Hodge, England, led from the start and won by some distance. The last qualifier for the final was Insinger on 785.

    2014ISBT06AndreGeelenRonOldfieldFrankLindsay.jpgBoth finals now brought in the top two bowlers from qualification to join the six who had made it through the earlier finals rounds. Two English took control early on, and by the end of Game 3, both Ron Oldfield and Angie Brown had established leads of over 100 pins from the rest of the field, and looked unbeatable.

    Behind these two it was a tight battle for the podium places. In the men's section, Andre Geelen, Belgium, took second place, with Frank Lindsay, England, in third. Ron Oldfield averaged just over 240 over his three games.

    Men's Division top 3: L-R Geelen (2nd), champion Oldfield and Lindsay (3rd)

    2014ISBT06JanHodgeAngieBrownFaridaPascoalBlom.jpg In the women's section, Jan Hodge had a big last game to slightly close on the leader, but still finished well short of Angie Brown's 218 average. Third place went to Farida Pascoal-Blom, Netherlands.

    With his win at the Flanders Senior Open 2014, Ron Oldfield has now won more ISBT tournaments than any other man, with eight individual titles, one more than Belgian Chris Vandamme.

    Women's Division top 3: L-R Hodge (2nd), champion Brown and Pascoal-Blom (3rd)

    Angie Brown further extended her title tally, now having won a total of 10 ISBT tournaments over the 5 years the series has been running, with Liliane Vintens being the second most successful with 5 titles.

    The next stop is the Dutch Senior Open, which takes place at a new venue this year, Chandra Bowling in Nieuwegain. The tournament runs from the 30th July to 3rd August. This will be followed the Masters final from the 2013 series on the 4th August, again at Chandra Bowling in Nieuwegein. Full details are available at ISBTBowlingTour.eu.

    Report and results by Tony Brown.

     


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Women's Final Round 3 (Final Standings)

     


    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Men's Final Round 3


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Women's Final Round 2


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Men's Final Round 2


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Women's Final Round 1


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Men's Final Round 1


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Women's Qualifying


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    2014 Flanders Senior Open - Men's Qualifying


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