Mark Spiteri, Sue Abela to compete in Qubica-AMF World Cup, Zagreb

June at the SuperBowl saw the MTBA’s qualifying event for this year’s Qubica-AMF World Cup, which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia between the 15th – 24th of October. This is one of the biggest events in the worldwide tenpin bowling calendar, with typically in excess of eighty nations represented by their male and female champions. Malta will be ably represented by Mark Spiteri and Sue Abela this year, the two having come through to top their respective divisions with flying colours.

The World Cup qualifier follows a simple format, all bowlers playing three 8-game sessions, and the highest pinfall from those 24 games determining the male and female winners. The male division rolled off with a tough field of hopefuls, but day one saw Mark Spiteri take early control with a 1694 session including a high opening game of 278. He was narrowly trailed by Rankin Camilleri in second on 1672 and Philippe Vancell on 1601.

Spiteri held his composure, and position for the second eight with a 3344 interim total ahead of Camilleri on 3292. The third place holder changed however, as Kenneth Arpa sneaked in with a good 1667 set for a 3250 sixteen game tally. That’s how the top three stayed on the final day of the event, with mark Spiteri claiming victory on 4940 pins (205.8 average), although Rankin Camilleri almost overtook him at the last hurdle, placing second with just fifteen pins separating them (4925, 205.2 ave). Kenneth Arpa’s 4890 total (203.7) kept him in third place, while Justin Caruana Scicluna took fourth on 4763 pins.

Sue Abela was a cut above the rest of the ladies division from the offset, finishing her first eight with a sound 1658 total to take the early lead above Melissa Swift on 1566, and Joanna Attard with 1526 pins. There was some jostling for position on day two as Sue’s game dropped somewhat, although 1479 was enough to keep her on top with 3137 pins over sixteen. Attard advanced to second on 3026, taking a tiny two pin advantage over Swift on 3024.

Only a disaster could have stopped Sue Abela from winning the ladies event on day three, and she succeeded with a final 4739 total (197.4 ave) to take the glory. Joanna Attard remained second (4443, 185.1 ave), finishing just twenty ahead of Melissa Swift in third (4423, 184.2 ave). Tiziana Carannante finished in fourth place with 4205 pins.

Two more local bowlers join ‘The 300 Club!’

Playing a perfect 300 game is every tenpin bowler’s dream – 12 straight strikes in one game for that magical maximum score. While there is a growing list of Maltese bowlers who have rolled a 300 game both in local and also international competition, these are still very rare achievements. Not so in the case of the final day of this year’s Malta Open Championships however, when not one but two local bowlers managed this ultimate bowling feat.

The first perfect game of the day went to Mark Spiteri in the opening game of the penultimate Round Robin stage. Spiteri, known around Europe as ‘Mr. Boom’ due to his high volume victory cry, lived up to his nick name as all ten pins started falling, with a crowd of local and foreign bowlers gathering to watch as the ninth frame brought his ninth strike. Then came the all important and high pressure tenth frame, and a further three strikes for the big 300 game score.

The gruelling eleven-game Round Robin continued, and in fact it was in the eleventh game that the day’s second Maltese 300 was claimed, by rising star Justin Caruana Scicluna. In spite of increasing game fatigue, as Justin had already played four games prior to the Round Robin, the youngster started consistently picking of solid strikes frame after frame. By numbers eight and nine, his sights were firmly on mirroring Spiteri’s earlier achievement, and again the encouraging crowd were there to push Justin on to make it twelve in a row. He did just that much to the pleasure of those watching, not least of all Justin’s mother, no other than Malta’s most successful bowler to date, Sue Abela, who is surprisingly yet to have her own first 300 game.