Defending champion Thomas Gross leads BNC Open after Day One Qualifying

    08/16/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #13

    Top 4 from Monday's qualifying squads advance to the finals on Sunday, Aug. 21

    2011EBT13ThomasGross.jpgDefending champion Thomas Gross (pictured left) of Vienna, Austria, led the first two of four qualifying squads Monday at BNC Bowling Center en route to take the lead after day one qualifying in the BNC Open in Bratislava, Slovakia.

    Gross started the tournament with 1288 series in Squad 1 and improved his score by 71 pins in Squad 2 behind games of 191, 216, 266, 236, 223 and 227. The Austrian national team member led the field of 84 players from Austria, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and the United States after 4 out of 24 qualifying squads with 1359 six-game total and an average of 226.50.

    2011EBT13TennerSpacey.jpgTanner Spacey (right), United States, was second in Squad 2 with 1236 (206 ave.) and Radek Lanč, Czech Republic, third with 1200 (even) to finish Monday in second and fourth place in the overall standings.

    Sandwiched between Spacey and Lanč in third place was the best of 17 women, Maxime de Rooij, Netherlands, with 1226. De Rooij was second to Gross in Squad 1 with 1178 (196.33) plus 48 pins women's handicap.

    The top four players from the Monday's standings are automatically qualified for the finals on Sunday, Aug. 21.

    Just outside the box in fifth place was Karel Kutina, who was tied with sixth-placed Squad 3 leader Michal Včeliš, both Czech Republic, at 1192. Michael Rauscher, Austria, was seventh with 1188 followed by Kateřina Beštová, Czech Republic, and the best Slovakian bowler, Squad 4 leader Pavol Kečkéš, with 1187 and 1181, respectively.

    Rounding out the top 10 after the first day was Marek Kečkéš, Slovakia, with 1176. Qualifying continues on Tuesday, Aug. 16 with Squads 5-8 slated for 9 a.m., 1, 5 and 9 p.m. CET.

    2011EBT13BNCOpenLogo_small.jpg The BNC Open is the 13th stop of the 2011 European Bowling Tour and the fifth out of seven EBT "Silver" tournaments this season.

    The tournament will be held from Aug. 15-21, 2011 at BNC Bowling Center, a 16-laner in Bratislava, Slovakia. The BNC Open offers total prize fund of 42.000 Euro with 6.000 Euro going to the winner, 3.300 to the runner-up and 1.800 each to the third and fourth place finisher.

    2010EBT13ThomasGrossPaulMoor_small.jpg 2010EBT13DulceFernandez_small.jpg
    Austria's Thomas Gross defeated three-time EBT ranking champion Paul Moor (pictured left, l-r), England, 462-396 over two games total pins, to win last year's inaugural BNC Bratislava Open. Gross received 5.000 Euro for his efforts. Dulce Fernandez (right), Spain, was the only woman, who advanced to the Round of 16 en route to win the women's ranking in 2010.

    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 receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament such as the BNC Open 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 fifth 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.

    Qualifying of the BNC Open (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) runs from Monday, Aug. 15 through Saturday, Aug. 20 featuring four squads each day at 9 a.m., 1, 5 and 9 p.m. CET. Qualifying will conclude with the one-game Desperado Squad slated for 12.30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

    Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire event, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    The BNC Open features a 39 feet Kegel lane conditioning pattern with 22.45ml volume oil total.

    A total of 64 players will advance to the finals on Sunday, Aug. 21: The top 48 players from the overall qualifying standings, plus the top 4 each from a separate leaderboard of the Squads on Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday, who are not among the top 48. The last four spots are reserved for the top 4 of the Desperado Squad.

    The top 16 qualifiers earn two byes, while players seeded 17-32 bypass the first round of the finals. The remaining 32 players will bowl 3 games starting from scratch with the top 16 advancing to the second round.

    The second and third round will be played in the same format. The 16 players, who advance to the fourth round will carry forward the pinfall total from Round 3 and bowl another three-game block to cut to the top 8 for single-elimination match play.

    Match play consists of two games, with the total pinfall to determine the winner. In all rounds the highest seeded player will meet the lowest seeded player, the second highest will meet the second lowest etc.

    The field will be trimmed to four then two players who will bowl for the title and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

     


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