Yoan Alix wins his second consecutive squad; moves into third place at 2011 BEC

    03/09/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #4

    Top 8 from squads 1-9 earn automatic berth into Sunday's finals

     

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    2010EBT11YoanAlix.jpg2011EBT04JouniHelminen.jpgFor the second consecutive day, Yoan Alix (pictured left), France, led a qualifying squad in the Brunswick Euro Challenge Tuesday at Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France.

    The French national team member, who posted a 1248 series on Monday leaped from eighth to third place after totaling 1268 in Squad 9. Alix had games of 202, 212, 205, 204, 210 and 235, an average of 211.33 for six games.

    Jouni Helminen (right), Finland, continues to pace the 178-player field from 15 countries with 1435 and an average of 239.17. Trailing Helminen by 163 pins to sit in second place was Olivier Braine, Belgium, with 1272. Mickel Rives, France, slipped to fourth place with 1259.

    2010EBT10NicoleSanders.jpg2011EBT04MohamedSultan.jpgNicole Sanders (left), Netherlands, was 12 pins behind Alix in Squad 9 to become the top-ranked woman in the field in fifth place with 1256 including 48 pins handicap.

    Rounding out the top 8 after the first nine squads, who will automatically earn berths into Sunday's finals if they don't finish among the top 52 in the overall qualifying standings, were 6. Sophie Herbin, France (1255), 7. Frederic Salmon, Belgium (1253) and 8. Mohamed Sultan (right), Saudi Arabia (1250).

    Marilyn Planchard, the French back-up specialist, was third in Squad 9 to miss the top 8 by 10 pins with 1240, good for 12th place overall. Patricia Luoto, Germany, was next with 1217 and sits in 16th place with her 1223 high series from Monday.

    2010EBT15WendyKok.jpg2010EBT16GeryVerbruggen.jpgWendy Kok (left), Netherlands, and Gery Verbruggen (right), Belgium, who has won the third EBT stop in Tilburg last weekend, moved into 26th and 36th place with 1196 and 1178, respectively.

    Four players, Yves Strobbe, Nicolas Forestier, Paulo Vial, all France, and Christian Racpan, Germany, were tied at 1157 and were seed 51st through 54th according to the higher last game. With 16 qualifying squads to go, Forestier is the "man on the bubble" in 52nd place.

    Photo Gallery Part 1

    Qualifying continues on Wednesday, March 9 with Squad 10 and 11 scheduled for 5 and 9 p.m. CET.

    2011BECLogo.jpg The 2011 Brunswick Euro Challenge is the fourth tournament on the 2011 European Bowling Tour schedule and one of just two "Platinum" events, the EBT's highest category.

    The BEC, which will be held from March 4-13, 2011 at 28-laner Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin near Paris, France, offers total prize money of 106.000 Euro (approx. US $143,000) with 15.000 Euro going to the winner, 7.500 to the runner-up and 5.000 to the third place finishers.

    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 top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. The winner of a Platinum tournament such as the Brunswick Euro Challenge 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 gets 50 ranking points.

    The top 16 men and the top 16 women at the end of the 2011 season qualify for the 5th EBT Masters to be held at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany on April 30 and May 1, 2012. The event will become the first EBT Masters to be contested on single lane condition.

    ValckeBowling.jpg BowlingdigitalBanner.gif The 2011 Brunswick Euro Challenge will be organized and conducted by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling. Bowlingdigital.com will cover the event live from Le Plaza Bowling with stories and results after each round including live streaming, high definition videos and high quality photos.


    2004EBT04BrondstedHartofillis.jpg2010EBT05RobThurlby2.jpg The first edition of the Brunswick Euro Challenge in the year 2004 was won by three-time EBT women's ranking winner Britt Brøndsted of Denmark (pictured left with organizer Bill Hartofillis). The Dane was followed by Jens Nickel, Germany (2005), Jason Belmonte, Australia (2006); Osku Palermaa, Finland (2007); Peter Ljung, Sweden (2008); Mike Fagan, United States (2009); and defending champion Rob Thurlby, England (2010; pictured right). Reigning women's ranking champion Nina Flack, Sweden, has won the BEC women's ranking last year.

    WBTLogo_small.jpgThe 8th Brunswick Euro Challenge is also the fourth event of the new World Bowling Tour organized by the World Tenpin Bowling Association. The WBT is a new concept developed by the WTBA to showcase the best bowlers from around the world.

    Players who compete in the selected international events and finish among the top three men and top three women in the final points standings will be eligible to compete in the World Bowling Tour Finals, a special televised event during the 2011 PBA World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas with a prize fund of $40,000.

    Qualifying begins on Friday March 3 with Squad 1 scheduled for 8.30 p.m. Central European Time (CET) and runs through Saturday, March. 12 with the final Squad 25 slated for 8 p.m. Qualifying concludes with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad at 11.30 p.m. Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire event, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 13, the top 52 in the overall qualifying standings, the top 8 of a separate leaderboard of the squads conducted March 4-8, plus the top 4 of the Desperado Squad. The top 12 players after qualifying will receive one bye.

    The remaining 52 finalists will bowl six games scratch to cut to the top 16 who will join the top 12 qualifiers in Round Two. Those 28 will bowl another six games scratch after which the field will be trimmed to the top 8 players who will carry their pinfall total forward into the match play round.

    The top 3 players after seven games round robin match play plus one game position round including bonus pins (30 for each win; 15 for each tie) will determine the champion in a stepladder final. The No. 3 seed bowls the No. 2 seed and the winner of the semifinal match takes on the No. 1 seed for the title, and the 15.00 Euro top prize.

     


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    Qualifying Standings after Squad 9/25


    After the conclusion of the qualifying, the top 8 players from Squad 1-9 NOT among the top 52 will advance to the finals.

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