Stuart Williams (pictured left), England, and Robert Andersson, Sweden, led qualifying squads #3 and #4 on Thursday to move into first and second place in the VII Catalonia Open - Trofeu Galasa at Bowling Pedralbes in Barcelona, Spain.

Williams, the 2007 World Ranking Masters winner, used high games of 279, 258 and 256 for 1474 to grab the pole position during Squad 3 with 1474 total and an average of 245.67.

World Champion Andersson (pictured right) led Squad 4 behind four games in the 230s plus a final 279 to jump into second place with 1454.

Williams' compatriot Dominic Barrett, who rolled a 1453 in Squad 3, slipped one spot to third place. Previous leader Marcial Ovide, Catalonia, slipped to fourth place with 1445. Dane Jesper Agerbo (left), silver medalist in Masters at the 2008 Men's World Championship, posted the first perfecto in the last game Thursday night en route to overtake fifth place in the overall qualifying standings with 1432.

Former PBA exempt player Tore Torgersen (right), Norway, is 6th with 1407. Mari Santonen, Finland, is the top-ranked woman in 7th place with 1403 including 48 pins handicap, the standard on the European Bowling Tour for women.

Rounding out the top 8 players, who all have cracked the 1400-bar, is World Champion Martin Larsen (left), Sweden, with 1403, due to the lower last game, 236 to Santonen's 268.

Within a span of two qualifying squads in 14-lane Bowling Pedralbes, all but three Catalonians slipped out of the top 30. Squad 1 leader Lluis Montfort is 14th with 1359 and Moises Pérez, who was second in both Squad 1 and 2 is 16th with 1351.

Camilla Lindqvist, Sweden, currently holds the 30th place with 1298 six-game total including handicap.

The VII Catalonia Open - Trofeu Galasa is the third stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament offers total prize fund of 55.000 Euro. The top 48 players cash with 12.000 going to the winner. Jari Ratia, Finland, is the defending champion.

Qualifying runs through Saturday evening, Feb. 28, with the final Squad 12 scheduled for 9 p.m. local time.

48 players, the top 30 qualifying leaders plus the 12 squad leaders not among the top 30 plus the next best six women, will advance to the finals and carry forward 50 per cent of their respective qualifying total.

Those 48 players will bowl 4 games to cut to the top 24, who will determine the three players for the stepladder finals in another 4-game block. No. 3 takes on No. 2 for the right to bowl No. 1 for the title and the 12.000 top prize.