The international players took over Plaza bowling center in Saint Maximin, France, where the fifth stop of the 2008 European Bowling Tour, the 90.000 Euro Brunswick Euro Challenge, is underway.

Four players moved into third through sixth place during the 9th qualifying squad on Wednesday night. Shaun Ng (left), Singapore, led the pack with 1344 six-game total including a 255 game, an average of 224.00, to move into third place. Tim Mack (right), United States was six pins behind with 1338, good for fourth place.

PBA exempt player Ronnie Russell, United States, was another six pins behind with 1332, with Dominic Barrett, England in sixth place with 1320.

PBA champion Mike Fagan, United States and Jason Belmonte (r-l), Australia, held on to the lead with 1390 and 1373 pinfall total, resp.

Dutch Wendy van der List is the top-ranked female bowler with 1301 including 48 pins handicap, a standard on the European Bowling Tour for women.

The Brunswick Euro Challenge is the fifth stop on the 2008 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "majors". The BEC offers total prize fund of 90,000 Euros (currently approx. $136,500) and offers special prizes that will be given in categories such as youth encouragement, "B" bowlers and ladies.

The 2008 Brunswick Euro Challenge sponsored by Brunswick Bowling is organized by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling.

Qualifying will continue Thursday through Saturday with at least four squads each day and ends with the squad #22 and the ultimate Desperado Squad on Saturday night, March 15.

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals. The top 16 players will receive one bye into step 2 and will seeded 1-16.

The following 48 players will qualify for step 1:

• Players positioned 17-52 in the qualifying
• the top 6 from a separate standing for the squads conducted March 7-9, who are not among the top 52
• the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

Those 48 will bowl six games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16 , who will meet the top 16 qualifiers in the first match play round. Match play is best-of-three games single-elimination. The field will be cut to 16, 8 and then four, who will determine the champion in a stepladder final.


Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Paris with updates after each squad and round, respectively, and exclusive video footage commencing Thursday, March 13 all the way through to the finals on Sunday, March 16.