Starting the last day on Sunday on the combined lane conditions at the Eden Superbowl he was in first place with a small lead over Kenneth Arpa the defending Champion. Keeping his focus and playing the lanes accordingly, Kenneth could not produce the games to overtake him. Halfway through the final game it became a reality for Neil that after finishing many times in second place that this time the title was his.

"I got al little bit tense in the beginning but I kept on concentrating on producing good shots and stick to my game plan," Neil confessed. "But I have been waiting for this for a while. I had no expectations when I started, but I did ask my wife to put a bottle of champagne in the fridge before I left home on Sunday," he said with a laugh.

In the women section Sue Abela the defending champion had no problems of defending her title and with a big margin of pins she captured her 6th consecutive title. With this win Sue broke the long standing record of Doris Camilleri with 5 consecutive titles.

 

From 1987 until now Sue Abela won a total of 16 National titles and one European title.

Sue Abela and Neil Sullivan will represent Malta in the European Champions Cup in October in Turkey.
 

With round one over, 2006 European Gold Cup winner Philippe Vancell topped the men's competition having played to a great 207.3 game average.

He was joined in the round robin phase by Leli Baldacchino, Dean Micallef, Shawn Bugeja, Aaron Belli and Philip Gruppetta.

Vancell's previous lead helped him to retain top spot. Also through to the finals were Micallef and third-placed Baldacchino. The latter, however, was forced to retire due to injury and surrendered his position to Bugeja.

Bugeja was carrying a 16-pin handicap as he met scratch bowler Micallef in the semi-final. That was not enough to see the substitute bowler through as Micallef clinched it 191-180, earning his place in the final against Vancell.

Micallef, as the underdog, had to win twice to claim the title whereas Vancell only needed a single game. Incredibly, the first game finished in a tie, 193-all, and a 9-10 frame roll-off was called by the tournament director. That was won 26-40 by Micallef to force the second game.

That was another very close affair but Micallef maintained his composure to clinch it 202-215 for the Gold Cup title.

In the women's section, youth champion Tiziana Carannante held the advantage after 16 games over Josephine Bonello. The other four qualifiers were Pam Demanuele, Melissa Swift, Liliana Said and Jade Cosaitis.

Carannante won three of her five encounters to stay top. She was joined in the stepladder by 2009 winner Swift and Bonello.

The semi-final mirrored that of the men in that it too went to a 9-10 frame roll-off, having finished 166-166 after regular play. It was Bonello who progressed to the final with a spare-strike as Swift followed her initial strike with an eight-count.

On to the final, Carannante kept her form for just one more game, beating Bonello 192-170 to secure yet another honour.

The two new champions will be competing in Cyprus later this year thanks to the support of the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association with the backing of Emirates Airline.

 

Our second entry Rankin had to play on early Thursday morning with a small field of entries. Starting with a disadvantage because two of his bowling balls did not arrived, his start was very good with games of 221 and 267 but than lost it and finished with a total of 1197.

The lead was taken over by lefty Anthony Pepe from the USA playing in the same squad as Rankin with games of 299 – 258 – 217 – 245 – 297 and 256 totaling a staggering 1572, averaging 262 over six games.

Let’s hope Rankin and Philippe will have learned from there first entry and make the right adjustments for there re-entry on Saturday and that Rankin's missing balls show up in time.
 

Live television coverage of the final on Eurosport 2 is scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 17:30-18:30 hrs (5:30-6:30 p.m.) CET

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