European ranking champions Moor, Bröndsted shoot into lead in Brunswick Euro Challenge

Three-time men's and women's European Ranking Champions, Paul Moor from England and Britt Bröndsted from Denmark powered their way into the lead in the Brunswick Euro Challenge at Strike Bowling Club in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Moor (left), who has won two of the four European Bowling Tour events this season, had games of 257, 198, 247, 224, 235 and 267 to overtake the lead with 1428 pinfall total and an average of 238.00. Bröndsted, who receives eight pins handicap each game, had a pair of 260s and a 257 final game to move into second place with 1406 (1358 scratch, 226.33 average).

Previous leaders Leonidas Maragos, Greece (1395), Rodrigo Hermes, Brazil (1390) and Peter Ljung, Sweden (1377) slipped to third, fourth and fifth position, resp.

Besides Moor and Bröndsted, seven more players cracked the top 16 in the 16th of 27 qualifying squads. Stuart Williams, England, improved his score for the second time today and is now in sixth position with 1376 six-game total.

Former World and European champion and now the head coach of Team Sweden, Tomas Leandersson (right), who led the squad after five games, moved into seventh place with 1366 including the high game of 279.

Place 11 belonged to Spaniard Paco Rodriguez (1352), who was sandwiched between two Finns, Pasi Uotila (9th, 1356) and Kari Hurri (12th, 1347) and two Swedes, Tobias Karlsson (10th, 1355) and Anders Öhman (13th, 1335).

With 230 players in the books, the cutoff number for 52nd place is 1231 or an average of 205.17.

Qualifying continues on Friday and Saturday with the 27th and final qualifying squad scheduled for 8pm on March 17 followed by the Desperado Squad, the ultimate one-game chance to qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18.


Bowlingdigital covers the event live from Thessaloniki all the way through to the TV finals on Sunday.

The BEC is the fifth stop of the 2007 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". Since the cancellation of the Viernheim Open, the Brunswick Euro Challenge is the richest event on the 2007 European Bowling Tour.

The total prize fund for the Open Division, Women and B-Bowlers plus special prizes is 90.000 Euro (approx. US$116,600). The Open Division champion will pocket 16.000 €.

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18. The top 52 from the qualifying, the top six from the qualifying squads conducted March 9-11 not among those 52 and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 16 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round. The other 48 finalists roll six games starting from scratch. The top 16 will join the 16 qualifying leaders in the best-of-three games single elimination finals. The highest ranked player will bowl the lowest seed, etc.

The rounds of 32, 16 and 8 trim the field from 16, to eight, then to four. The remaining four players will be seeded 1 to 4 for the stepladder finals to determine the champion in three one-game matches: No. 4 vs. No. 3, winner vs. No. 2, winner vs. No. 1.