Ong, Giles crack top 16 in Brunswick Euro Challenge qualifying

Two-time World Champion Remy Ong (l.) from Singapore and Matt Giles from England cracked the top 16 in the qualifying of the Brunswick Euro Challenge at Strike Bowling Club in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Friday morning.

Ong came out of the gates quickly posting a huge 289 in the opening game of the six-game series. The lefty then suffered two 170-plus games but rebounded with 214 and back-to-back 245 games for 1342 or an average of 223.67, to currently take the 13th place in the qualifying standings.

"The lane conditions aren't easy here in Thessaloniki," said Ong. "I played three different lines on three lanes." However, despite the two sub-200 games, Ong should have secured a spot for the finals. "I wish, the 170s would have resulted in 200 games. That could have been enough to finish among the top 16." The top 16 after qualifying will earn one bye for the finals.

Giles (r.) had a high game of 268 and a low game of 159 to finish with 1330 pinfall total to sit in 15th place with 18 of 27 qualifying squad completed. Swede Mikael Kanold started his set with back-to-back 257 games but closed out the set with 181 and 180 for 1312, good enough for 23rd place.

Jennifer Tan, the spinner from Singapore, who won the 2002 World Ranking Masters, improved her score to 1258 including the women's handicap of 48 pins, to leap into 42nd place.

Three-time men's and women's European Ranking Champions, Paul Moor from England and Britt Bröndsted from Denmark continued to led with 1428 and 1406, respectively.

With 237 from 26 countries having completed at least one qualifying block, the cutoff number for 16th place is 1330 (Lee Yu Wen, Singapore) and 1239 for 52nd place (Oron Cohen, Israel).

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.