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Nicki Ainge cracks top 8; shoots 1448 to jump into fourth place in Singles

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10/03/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #15

Teams with Nina Flack to overtake fourth place in Doubles

2009 Women's European Bowling Tour ranking champion Nicki Ainge (pictured left), England, became the first woman in the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open who cracked the 1400-bar as she rolled a 1400 scratch series in Squad 15 Saturday afternoon at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Ainge had games of 241, 193, 246, 256, 239 and 225, an average of 233.33, and added 48 pins handicap to jump into fourth place in the overall qualifying standings with 1448 total pinfall.

Finland's two-hander Osku Palermaa (above, right) and 12-time PBA champion Chris Barnes (below, on the left), United States, pace the field of 304 players with 1462 (243.67). Palermaa is the qualifying leader due to the higher last game, 288 to 235.

8-time PBA champion Mika Koivuniemi (left photo, right) is third with 1448, while 3-time World Champion Martin Larsen (rifgt photo, left), Sweden, and 4-time PBA champion Sean Rash (right), United States, slipped to 5th and 6th place, respectively, with 1447.

Rounding out the top 8, who will bypass the first round of the finals are Mik Stampe, Denmark (1428) and Stuart Williams, England, with 1394.

Chris Klerk, United States, missed the top 8 by mere three pins with 1391 including five games between 223 (3) and 234 and a high game of 255.

Klerk sits in 11th place, two pins behind Perttu Jussila, Finland (1393) and one pin behind Dominic Barrett (left), England (left, 1392).

A total of 10 players including Ainge and Klerk reached the 1300-bar in Squad 15. Russia's Nikita Koshelev (right) holds the 52nd and last place to advance to the finals with 1298 or an average of 216.33.

Ainge joined forces with 2008 Women's European Bowling Tour ranking champion Nina Flack (left), Sweden, to become just the third duo which cracked the 2800-bar. Flack added 1364 (19th in Singles) to Ainge's 1462 to move into third place in the Doubles competition (no finals) with 2812.

Palermaa and Tore Torgersen (pictured right, r-l), Norway, remained in the lead with 2845 (237.08 avg.). Second place belongs to Koivuniemi and Barnes with 2828.

Qualifying continues on Saturday with Squads 16 and 17 scheduled for 4pm and 8pm and ends with the one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 pm. All times Central European Time.

Bowlingdigital's Facebook account will be regularly updated with photos by Beat Grauwiler.
Photo Album 1
Photo Album 2

The 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 15th stop of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Gold" events. The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 28 through Sunday Oct. 3, 2010 at 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled and the English Open has lost its EBT status, the 2010 EBT Tour consists of 18 events - 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 6 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

More than 300 players from 26 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 70.630 Euro - 60.400 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 7.000 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. Pictured right: Clara Juliana Guerrero, Colombia, and Stuart Williams, England, won the Doubles competition in 2009.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 2 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. 3:

the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings
the first player each from Squad 1-6, who is not among the top 52 (total 6 players)
and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

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, 150 ranking points and the 7.000 Euro top prize.

Tournament Format
Schedule
Prize Fund

In the 2009 title match, hometown favorite Thomas Gross (pictured left) defeated tournament leader Stuart Williams, England, in a high scoring encounter, 246-231, en route to become the first Austrian winner in the Columbia 300 Vienna Open. Britt Brøndsted (right), Denmark, was the best female bowler in 10th place to win the women's ranking. Review the live streaming of the stepladder finals here.

Click here to review Bowlingdigital's Live Coverage from the 2009 Columbia 300 Vienna Open
or click here to go straight to the 2009 VO Video Section.

Since the inaugural Vienna Open in the year 2003, Bowlingdigital covers the event live from Plus Bowling with stories and results after each round commencing Monday Sept. 27 all the way through to the finals on Sunday Oct. 3.

Once again, our Swiss friends Flavio Cuva (left) and Beat Grauwiler (right) will be on hand to support the Live Coverage with our much-anticipated high definition videos and photos.

Defending fifth-place Desperado Squad advancer from last year, Lucas Wiseman (pictured left) of USBC Communications, will also return and fill in as play-by-play announcer.

Bowlingdigital will be providing free Live Streaming of the four-player stepladder finals on Sunday, Oct. 3rd starting at 5pm CET. We are also planning to provide live streaming broadcasts of portions of the qualifying and the final rounds prior to the stepladder.