The women from Lucky Striker Regensburg, Ivonne Gross, Patricia Klug, Bigi Manico, Tanya Petty and Tanja Theißen, and the men from 1. BC Duisburg, Achim Grabowski, Dirk Dreyer, Erich Gehrmann, Thomas Gross, Michael Holzapfel and Michael Krämer, won the titles in the 2006/07 German Bundesliga, the annual four- (women) and five-player (men) team championships.

The picture shows the top 3 teams - men and women - of the 2006/07 German Bundesliga season. Click on the image to view it full size.

L-R Bigi Manico, Switzerland, Patricia Klug, Ivonne Gross, both from Austria, Tanja Theißen and Tanya Petty, both Germany, started the sixth and final Bundesliga weekend tied for first place with defending champion BV 77 Frankfurt with almost identical pinfall total (35.930 to 35.925 for Regensburg).

The format is nine games of match play - one game against each of the other 4-player teams -each weekend. Two points per win and 1 point per tie. The team with the highest pinfall total of the weekend receives 10 bonus points, the team with the second-highest pinfall total receives 9 pints, etc.

Both, Regensburg and Frankfurt, lost their first game and won the second. When Regensburg lost gain in game #3, Frankfurt took the lead but gave back the advantage due to a loss in game #5. Both teams won in the sixth and seventh round. The big point for Regensburg came in the penultimate game when Manico (213), Klug (227), Petty (267) and Gross (279 - the high game of the women's season) rolled a record 986-game, a 246.50 average.

The "Lucky Striker" went on to beat Frankfurt in the final match of the season, 753-739, to cruise to the title with 131 points and an average of 200.80 for 54 team games. Frankfurt finished second with 127 points (198.96), while Radschläger Düsseldorf captured the bronze medal with 103 pints (197.06).

Martina Kolbenschlag from Viernheim was the best individual player with an average of 209.12 over 49 games. Ivonne Gross was second (207.03) and Martina Beckel, Frankfurt, third (203,44).

The format in the men's division is comparable to the women. The only difference is that a men's team consists of five players.

The team from 1. BC Duisburg, L-R Dirk Dreyer, Michael Holzapfel, Thomas Gross, Austria, World Masters silver medalist Achim Grabowski, Michael Krämer and Erich Gehrmann, is the dominating team in the Bundesliga and has won numerous titles in the past fifteen years.

However, trailing leader "Finale Kassel" by 11 points before the final weekend (113 to 102), Kassel with three Finns, European Champion Jouni Helminen, World Champion Mika Luoto and World Cup and World Games champion Kai Virtanen as well as Peter Knopp, David Canady, Robert Wölki and Klaus Lischka had almost secured the title.

But Duisburg had other plans and compiled a 7-1 won-loss record in the first eight games, while Kassel suffered four consecutive losses in games #2-5 and a crucial one in game #8. Both teams met in the 9th game for final showdown. The winner of that match would win the championship.

The decision was made in the very last frame. Duisburg with Grabowski-Thomas Gross, Dirk Dreyer, Michael Krämer (258) and Michael Holzapfel won the game against Kassel with Luoto (247), Canady, Wölki, Virtanen and Helminen by three pins, 1000-997, to cruise to the title with 128 points and an average of 209.38 for 54 team games.

Kassel had to settle for second place with 124 points (212.37) and defending champion TSV Chemie Premnitz with 114 points (209.21).

Luoto and his team mate Lasse Lintilä, both Finland, led all players in average with 224.74 for 54 games and 222.04 for 27 games, respectively. Third place belonged to Kai Günther, Premnitz, with 217.02/54 games.

Also remarkable is that Austrian internationals Thomas Gross (l.) and his wife Ivonne (r.), the first and only couple that has qualified for the World Ranking Masters (2006), brought back home both titles to Vienna.