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Americans Rash, Blanchard, Barnes lead penultimate qualifying squad in Vienna

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10/03/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #15

Tanya Cuva shoots the fifth 300 game of the tournament and the first by a woman

U.S. bowlers dominated the 16th and penultimate qualifying squad in the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open Saturday evening at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria. 4-time PBA champion and 2007 USBC Masters champion Sean Rash (pictured left) led the squad with 1417 six-game total, and an average of 236.17, but missed his high series by 30 pins to remain in 6th place with 1447.

Ditto for 12-time PBA champion Chris Barnes, who was third with 1401 but sits in second place with 1462.

Wichita University standoutJosh Blanchard (right) was sandwiched between the two pros in second place with 1411 to crack the top 8 in the overall qualifying standings, who will bypass the first round of the finals tomorrow. Blanchard had games of 235, 215, 225, 243, 235 and 258, an average of 235.17, good for 8th place overall.

Osku Palermaa (pictured left), Finland, paces the field of 306 players with 1462 (243.67) and had the higher last game than Barnes, 288 to 235.

Besides the three Americans, nine more players cracked the 1300-bar. six of whom, Krista Pöllänen (right), Finland (1391), Pete Weber, United States (1381), Paul Moor, England (1349), Federico Rossi, Italy (1322), Michael Grabovac, Austria (1310) and Lisanne Breeschoten, Netherlands (1310), moved into the top 52, while Dominic Barrett, England (1381), Palermaa (1362) and Mika Koivuniemi, Finland (1333). could not improve their high series.

The cut for 52nd place passed the 1300-mark as Alvar Cardona, Catalonia, is the "man on the bubble" with 1302 or an average of 217.00.

German international Tanya Cuva (left) rolled the fifth 300 game of the tournament and the first by a woman in the second game of Squad 16. Though she had another 257 in game #5, Cuva had to settle for 1288 including 48 pins handicap due to four sub-180 games.

Just two of teams in Squad 16 cracked the top 20 in Doubles. Finns Palermaa (1362) and Koivuniemi (1333), pictured right, moved into 11th place with 2695 pinfall total, while Blanchard (1411) and Lynda Barnes (1264) overtook 17th place with 2675. Palermaa and Tore Torgersen, Norway, remained in the lead with 2845 (237.08 avg.).

The last qualifying squad 17 started at 8pm. Qualifying 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.