Alex Krause and Tim Bhongbhibhat (r-l) from Stuttgart, Germany came back from a 1-0 deficit against Swiss Sandro Ancarani and Bigi Manico to win the 7th International Strangers Doubles Tournament, two-games-to-one.

The local favorites easily won the first game, 398-337, but the Germans rebounded with a 457-403 win in game two to level the match. In a high-scoring final game Krause (266) led his teammate Bhongbhibhat (204) to a 470-447 victory.

Mere 25 doubles came to Bowling Beseco in Rümikon (Zurich) and Strangers president Lucio Fiorani (pictured in front of the top 3. Click on the image to enlarge it.) already announced that the club will continue to run the tournament but in a different format.

As only 25 doubles participated the intermediate round was canceled and the top 14 teams advanced straight to the knock-out finals. The two lowest scores were eliminated until the field was cut to the top two teams.

Stefan Bloch and Andreas Bösiger, who led the eight-game qualifying round with a 228.63 average including a 290-game from Bloch, were eliminated in the first round with a disastrous 282 pinfall total.

In the sixth round, Krause/Bhongbhibhat (422) and Ancarani/Manico (418) edged Ralf Schlingensief/Uwe Slama (391, third) and Gerd Weigand/Patrick Prell (340, fourth), both of Germany, to advance to the best-of-three games finals.

Results and pictures courtesy of Beat Grauwiler.