Germans dominate as qualifying at Wroclaw Open has passed the halfway mark

    02/18/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #2

    Gutsche, Friedrichs, Matthies in 1, 2 and 3; cut for 40th place is currently 1222 (203.67)

    2011IWOLogo_small.jpg Falco Gutsche, Tim Friedrichs and Tilo Matthies of Germany hold the top three places in the fifth International Wroclaw Open by Hammer as the qualifying has passed the halfway mark Thursday at bowling center Galeria Rozrywki Miraz in Wroclaw, Poland.

    Gutsche leads the 89-player field from nine countries since the third out of 18 qualifying squads with 1463 six-game total or an average of 243.83.

    Friedrichs had games of 222, 238, 265, 249, 227 and 227 in Squad 10 on Thursday night to overtake second place with 1428 (238.00). Matthies, who had a 1424 series in Squad 2, slipped to third place.

    Alessandro Silletti, Italy, is two pins behind Matthies in fourth place with 1422. Dane Robert Norberg led Squad 9 with 1415 including high games of 269, 255 and 249 to move into fifth place in the overall qualifying standings.

    There is a bigger gap between fifth and sixth place as Łukasz Zjawiony is the top ranked local bowler in sixth place with 1365 closely followed by compatriots Patryk Preus (1364), Paweł Bielski (1350), and Ray McDowell (1349) in eighth through tenth place.

    Poland's women's national team member Daria Pająk is the best of four women in the field and the sole in the top 40 in 34th place with 1240 including 48 pins handicap. Michał Walor, Poland, currently holds the 40th and last place to advance with 1222 or an average of 203.67.

    Qualifying continues on Friday, Feb. 18, with Squads 11 through 14 scheduled for 10 a.m., 1.30, 5 and 8.30 p.m. 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 fifth 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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    Qualifying standings after Squad 10/18