Paul Moor rises to the top in Ebonite Lahti Open qualifying

    10/17/09

    2009 European Bowling Tour #12

    Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland (Oct. 10-18, 2009)

    2009EBT12PaulMoor.jpg2009EBT12PasiUotila.jpgEuropean Ranking Masters champion Paul Moor (pictured left) rolled a 1413 series in the 8th qualifying squad en route to overtake the lead in the qualifying of the Ebonite Lahti Open at Friday at Jouni Helminen's Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland.

    The English lefty, who bowled six squads in last year's event and still missed the cut, will get some of his money back after posting three 240s and two 230s to overtake previous leader member Pasi Uotila (right, 1413), Finland, by 9 pins.

    "I just bowled better (than last year]," Moor explained. "I’ve changed some things in my game, I’ve got different balls and so on. And I started with 249, so that settled me a bit. I knew the cut wouldn’t be that high. Anyway, I will bowl once more tomorrow. I don’t want to keep a day off, even if this is enough for the top 8.

    Moor and Uotila remained atop the leaderboard as no other player cracked the 1400 bar on Friday. Thomas Larsen, Denmark, and 8-time PBA champion Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, fell one spot to third and fourth place with 1370 and 1359, respectively.

    2009EBT12UlariLees.jpg2009EBT12VanessaTimter.jpgUlari Lees (left), Estonia, stunned PBA stars Bill O’Neill, Doug Kent and Mike Wolfe, when he led the 10th qualifying squad on Friday night to shoot into 5th place with 1357. The Estonian youth national team member came out of the gates quickly with 246, 236, 235 and 246 but could not match the pace in the final two games (198, 196).

    Wolfe was next with 1299, good for 20th place in the overall qualifying standings thus far. O'Neill had 1285 (29th) while Kent finished his first attempt in 82nd place with 1201.

    Vanessa Timter (right), Germany, who led Squad 6 with 1352 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour, is the best woman in the field of 213 players in sixth place.

    2009EBT09MartinLarsen.jpg2009EBT12BodoKonieczny.jpgMartin Larsen (left), who bowled together with Moor in Squad 8 moved into 7th place behind a 1345 series. Rounding out the top 8 is Mads Sandbækken, Norway, with 1337.

    Bodo Konieczny (right), Germany, who is back in Lahti for the first time since the 1997 World Games, led Squad 9 with 1332, sits in 11th place. "I think I'll make the cut so Saturday is an off day for me," Konieczny said.

    Markku Petäjämaa, Finland, currently holds the 36th and final spot to advance with 1268 pinfall total and an average of 211.33.

    The Ebonite Lahti Open is the 12th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Challenger" events. The tournament will be held from Oct. 10-18, 2009 at Jouni Helminen's fully renovated Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland, and offers an increased total prize fund of 49.200 Euro, or about 72,500 U.S. dollars. The winner will receive the 8.000 Euro top prize.

    Qualifying ends on Saturday, Oct. 17, with Squads 11-14 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m. local time (GMT +3) on Saturday night.

    A total of 40 players - the top 36 from the qualifying (six games) and top 4 from the Desperado Squad - will advance to the finals on Sunday, Oct. 18. The top 8 qualifiers will earn one bye and will be seeded into Final Round 2.

    The remaining 32 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch. The top 12 join the top 8 qualifiers and bowl 5 games from scratch with the top 10 advancing to Round 3. Those 10 players will bowl another 5-game series with the pinfall from Round 2 being carried forward to cut to the top 4 who will advance to the stepladder finals.

    The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 seed, the winner takes on the No. 2 for the right to bowl the No. 1 for the title. All stepladder matches are single game matches.


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    Qualifying Standings after Squad 10/14

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