Different German, same top position in Poland

    02/16/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #2

    Falco Gutsche overtakes qualifying lead from compatriot Tilo Matthies

    2011IWOLogo.jpg Falco Gutsche of Germany overtook his compatriot and day one qualifying leader Tilo Matthies by 39 pins to take the lead in the 5th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer Tuesday at bowling center Galeria Rozrywki Miraz in Wroclaw, Poland.

    Gutsche started Squad 3 (of total 18) with games of 267, 275, 236, 246 and 237 for 1261 five-game total and an average of 252.20. Needing a 239 final game to crack the magic 1500-mark, the German posted his low game of 202 but easily took the lead with 1463 total and an average of 243.83.

    Matthies, who had a 1424 series on Monday, slipped to second place and has a 60-pin cushion over the top local bowler, Patryk Preus, who led Squad 4 on Tuesday with 1364 (227.33). Preus had slow start into the tournament but rebounded from a 189 game with back-to-back 258. He had another two sub-200 games (195, 186) before he closed things out with a huge 278 game.

    Paweł Bielski, Poland, was second to Preus in Squad 4 with 1350 including five games between 212 and 257 and a low game of 198 en route to move into fourth place in the overall qualifying standings.

    Piotr Zjawiony, Poland, who was second to Gutsche in Squad 3 missed the tournament's first 300 game by just one pin when posted a 299 in his third game en route to a 1322 total, good for fifth place overall.

    Dawid Szpański, Poland, who was in second place after Monday with 1301, slipped to sixth place.

    41 men from five countries have competed in the tournament so far. Qualifying continues on Wednesday, Feb. 16, with Squad 5 and 6 scheduled for 1.30 and 5pm CET.

    2011IWOLogo_small.jpg The 5th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer (IWO) is the first of six European Bowling Tour "Satellite" events of the 2011 season. The tournament will be held from Monday Feb. 14 through Sunday Feb. 20, 2011 at bowling center Galeria Rozrywki Miraz, a 10-laner in Wroclaw, Poland.

    Since the Viborg International in Viborg, Denmark originally scheduled for July 30-Aug. 7, 2011 has been cancelled, the 2011 European Bowling Tour consists of 21 tour stops in 17 countries including two Platinum, six Gold, seven Silver and six Satellite tournaments.

    The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament such as the International Wroclaw Open gets 50 ranking points.

    The total prize fund of the 2011 Tour exceeds one million Euro. The top 16 men and women in the EBT ranking will qualify for the 5th EBT Masters at Dream Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany on April 30 and May 1, 2012.

    Participants in the IWO will compete for total prize money of 26.000 Euro or approximately US $35,200 with 4.250 Euro going to the winner, 2.750 to the runner-up and 2.100 and 1.800 to third and fourth place finishers, respectively.

    Qualifying (6 games, unlimited re-entries) runs through Saturday, Feb. 19, and ends with Squad 18 slated for 8.30 p.m. CET on Saturday night. Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    The tournament will be contested on a 41 ft. lane conditioning pattern (pdf file).

    The top 40 players from the qualifying will advance to the finals on Sunday Feb. 20. The pinfall will be carried forward from the qualifying through the stepladder finals. The top 40 will bowl 4 games with the top 20 advancing to the second round.

    Those 20 will bowl another 4 games to cut to the top 8 who advance to round robin match play. The top 4 players after seven match play games (20 pins bonus per win, 10 for a tie, 5 pins bonus for each game between 250 and 300) will advance to the stepladder finals.

    Stepladder matches one and two will be decided in one game, while the championship match features two games decided by total pinfall. The No. 4 seed bowls the No. 3 seed, the winner takes on the No. 2 seed and the winner of that semifinal match earns the right to bowl the No. 1 seed for the title.

     


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