Former Junior Team USA member Matt O'Grady (pictured left) fired a huge 1561 series on Sunday morning at Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France, en route to lead the top 16 of Final Round One into the single-elimination match play portion.

O'Grady, who missed the qualifying cut for 52nd place by mere one pin but qualified for the finals with a 249 game in the Desperado Squad, had games of 290, 269, 227, 232, 277 and 266 to lead second-place Martin Larsen (right) (1469), Sweden, by 92 pins.

Oliver Blasé (right), Germany, was third with 1428, followed by Bill O'Neill (left, 1396), United States, who is currently in second place in the PBA Point rankings.

Hernan Ramirez, Venezuela, missed the fifth perfecto of the tournament in the final game by three pins, but the 297 helped him grab 9th place with 1346. Another four women made the second cut, Rikke Holm Rasmussen, Denmark (6th, 1353), Diandra Asbaty, United States (7th, 1351), Britt Brøndsted, Denmark (11th, 1329), who had one of the four 300 games thus far, and Nicki Ainge, England (14th, 1322).

Olivier Leroy, Belgium, hit the cutoff number for 16th place with 1317 and an average of 219.50.

The top 16 will be seeded 17-32 and meet the top 16 qualifiers in single-elimination best-of-three games match play starting with the Round of 32.

Leroy will meet Qualifying leader, Brian Voss (left), a 23-time PBA champion and PBA Hall of Famer. O'Grady will take on No. 16, Alain Nicolas (right), France.

Notables who failed to advance were two-hander Jason Belmonte (left), Australia, (19th, 1295), 4-time European ranking champion Gery Verbruggen, Belgium (26th, 1273), 2-time defending European ranking champion Osku Palermaa (right), Finland, (28th, 1266), PBA champion Brad Angelo, United States (29th, 1263), winner of the last EBT stopp Lucas Legnani, Argentina (36th, 1233) and 3-time European ranking champion Paul Moor, England (43rd, 1193).

The Brunswick Euro Challenge is the fourth stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "majors". The total prize fund is 90,000 Euro (currently about US$114,000), and includes special prizes that will be given in categories such as youth encouragement, B Bowlers, and Women. In addition Brunswick offers up to $1,000 bonus for shooting a 300 game with the new Brunswick "Wilde Ride" bowling ball in the 2009 BEC.

The Brunswick Euro Challenge 2009 sponsored by Brunswick Bowling is organized by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling.

A total of 64 players qualified for the finals on Sunday, March 15. The top 16 players received one bye and will be seeded 1-16 in Round 2.

The following 48 players qualified for Round 1:

• Players positioned 17th-52nd in qualifying
• the top 6 from a separate standing for the squads conducted March 6-8, who are not among the top 52
• the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

Those 48 bowled 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 No. 1 seed will take on No. 32, No. 2 bowls No. 31, etc. The field will be cut to 16, 8 and then four, who will determine the champion in a stepladder final. The winner will receive the 16.000 Euro top prize.

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin with results and updates after each round commencing March 12 all the way through to the finals on Sunday, March 15.