Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria (Sep. 29 - Oct. 4, 2009)

Austrian senior bowler Anton Stiel (pictured left) had games of 234, 190, 202, 223, 236 and 203 during the fifth squad to overtake the lead in the qualifying of the 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open with 1288 six-game total and an average of 214-67.

Stiel beat out Austrian national team member Rene Landl for the top spot in Squad 5 by 21 pins which earned him an automatic berth into the finals no matter if the 1288 will not be good enough for the top 52.

Click here to view more pictures. Courtesy of LarsMueller.com.

Tim Friedrichs, Germany, who overtook the lead in Squad 4 by virtue of the higher game and Squad 1 leader Franz Hahn slipped one spot to second and third, both with 1286. Mirek Cifra, Czech Republic, who led Squad 2 with 1269 fell to fourth place. Those four and Squad 3 leader Ivonne Gross (below left) are automatically qualified for the finals.

The sixth and last spot will be at stake in Squad 6 on Wednesday night.

With 136 players in the books, Landl is fifth with 1267 and is followed by Zoltan Skorbrics (1248), Hungary, Rainer Köpf and Jens Grieger, both Germany (both 1246) .

The top 3 Doubles remained unchallenged in Squad 5. Cifra and Karel Kutina, Czech Republic, continued to lead with 2467 and an average of 205.58. Friedrichs and Jens Grieger are second with 2446 with Thomas Gross and Walter Rieger (right, l-r), Austria, in third place with 2434.

Landl and partner Mario Baumgartner led Squad 5 in Doubles with 2396 total and an average of 199.67, good for fourth place in the overall standings.

The 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 11th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 29 through Sunday Oct. 4, 2009 at the renovated 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

More than 340 players from 27 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 68.130 Euro - 65.630 Euro - 55.400 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 Euro top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash. Bigi Manico, Switzerland and Tanya Cuva (nee Petty) are the defending champion.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 3 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1). Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour

A total of 64 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 4:

The top 8 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round of the finals.

The other 52 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 22, who will join the top qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players will bowl another 6 games starting from scratch after which the field will be trimmed to the top 18, who will carry their pinfall forward into Round Three. After another 6-game block the top 4 with the highest 12-game total will advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, 100 ranking points and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

 

 

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Vienna Open Singles - Qualifying Standings after Squad 5 of 17

 

 

Vienna Open Doubles - Standings after Squad 5 of 17

 

 

Vienna Open Singles - Squad 5 Results

 

 

Vienna Open Doubles - Squad 5 Results