Qatar is in the middle east – more specific it is an half-island connected to Saudi-Arabia, with Abu Dhabi and Dubai pretty close by. I love it in Qatar – everybody is friendly, and with this being my 3rd year all my “preconceived notions” has been removed. Food and services (like taxi) are also cheap down here (compared to the prices in Denmark), but Electronics cost the same.

Players from all over the world is coming to bowl here in Qatar this year, as the list of participants include countries like  Canada, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, UAE and USA. With Sweden being the best represented with 19 bowlers, Finland with amazing 10 bowlers and Denmark with 9 bowlers.

If I have to namedrop, then players like Chris Barnes, Mike Fagan, last years winner Remy Ong, Mika Koiviuniemi (who for the 2nd year in a row doesn’t have his bowling-balls yet), The 2-handed “Twin-grip” Osku Palerma who just recently won one of the WSOB Tournaments on the PBA-tour, Dominic Barret, Stuart Williams, Jouni Helminen and the list could go on as pretty much everybody wants to be here for this Platinum tournament that concludes this years EBT Tour.

The total price sum is 120.000 € and 48 bowlers making the cut for the finals starting on Saturday the 18th of December. To get to the final you need to qualify as top 38 for the general standing, be in the top 2 (that doesn’t qualify in the general standing) from the 2 squads conducted on saturday, sunday and monday (6 bowlers) or be in the top 4 of the desperado. The top 6 in the general standings get 2 byes, and top 12 gets 1 bye.

In Final step 1, 36 players will bowl 6 games, with top 18 to go to the next step. In Final step 2, 24 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch wit 10 bowlers continuing forward. In step 3 16 bowlers will bowl 6 games from scratch with 8 bowlers continuing to step 4 – here they will bowl another 6 games with pins carried forward from step 3. The top 4 will battle it out in matchplay in a 2-game total format with the number 1 seed meeting number 4. and the 2 winners competing for the 30.000€ 1st prize. The lowest prize is a 1000€ for qualifying into the final. Everyday there is an extra 200€ for the highest score, and a 1000€ to share among the bowlers who will bowl a perfect 300.

The oil-pattern for this year Qatar Open 2010 is 37 feet long (or short), and with it’s 16.5 ml oil by far the lowest amount of oil in any other tournament on the EBT tour.

On the opening day of this tournament, Qatars own Mubarak Al Muraikhi set the pace with 1355. On the second day Swedens Karl Wahlgren and Bahrains Yousif Falah both shot more with 1378 and 1356. On the third day Naif Oqab almost beat the 1400 marker with 1399, Tore  bowled 1398, Osku 1389, Sayed Al-Hasemi 1375 so the scores are going up.

On day 4 I had a good run starting with a perfect 300 and ended up with 1404 total. Remy Ong bowled 1393. I estimate that the cut for top 38 will be around 1330, and hopes that the cut for top 6 will be below 1400 1370 seems like enough for the top 12.

Blogbowler.com
Jimmy Dan Mortensen

In an epic battle of man versus machine, the newest member of the Equipment Specifications and Certifications team at USBC showed off its skills against USBC spokesperson and Professional Bowlers Association star Chris Barnes at the International Bowling Campus on Tuesday.

While the new addition isn’t a professional bowler, it is capable of unmatchable accuracy and consistency on the lanes that no human bowler can achieve. Those qualities make E.A.R.L. (Enhanced Automated Robotic Launcher) invaluable in the many studies necessary to keep up with the ever-changing bowling ball industry.

Members of the media and invited guests were among the first to see what the newest state-of-the-art bowling ball-throwing robot is all about, which includes duplicating shot after shot at ball speeds anywhere from 10-24 miles per hour and rev rates anywhere from 50-900 rpm, a significantly wider range than its predecessor, Harry, a less-automated robot introduced in 1999 and recently retired.

In a one-game match at the International Training and Research Center (ITRC), Barnes prevailed, 259-209, but he knows the score does not reflect how significant E.A.R.L. ultimately will be in industry research.

“E.A.R.L. has more abilities than any of the robots I’ve seen before, and to have something to use for testing that is as precise and dependable is very important for the future of the sport,” Barnes said. “I am a fan of technology, and I’m really intrigued by what E.A.R.L. can do. Today was a lot of fun, and I’m sure when they have some more time to work with it, it will only get better. I’m not sure I want a rematch in six months.”

“I think we showcased the research side of the ITRC really well today, and this is the start of a whole new era of learning,” said Neil Stremmel, USBC Managing Director-National Governing Body. “We’ve been waiting a long time for E.A.R.L. to be ready, and now we can truly delve into a variety of research projects. E.A.R.L. will be a great resource for us and the bowling industry as a whole.”

E.A.R.L. was named by USBC Junior Gold youth bowler Melissa Stewart of Roswell, Ga. She figured if bowling great Earl Anthony’s nickname was “The Machine,” then it was only “fitting to name the new ball-throwing robot for a bowler with machine-like characteristics.”

A joint venture between USBC and the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, the ITRC, a United States Olympic Committee-recognized training center, is the most innovative and advanced training, research and testing facility in the sport of bowling. The center includes 14 lanes for training and six for research and testing purposes.

Article from Bowl.com

The total number of participants broke the previous record of 166 set in the 40th BWC in Singapore in 2004. The number of females bowlers broke the previous record of 73 set in Singapore, Caracas (2006) and St. Peters burgh (2007) .

The preliminaries consist of 4 blocks of 5 games with the top 24 men and the top 24 women after 20 games advancing to the intermediate round. The top 24 players bowl another 8 games with the pinfall total from the preliminaries being carried forward.

The top 8 men and the top 8 women after 28 games will bowl a further 7 games round robin match play plus 1 game position round total 8 games) with 30 pins bonus per win and 15 for a tie. The top 3 men and the top 3 women after 36 games including bonus pins will determine the champions in a stepladder final in best-of-three games format.

You can watch the livestreaming from this link.

The American PBA-player Michael Fagan, who earned his place in the finals from the last qualifying squad, is the winner of Ebonite Lahti Open 2010.

Fagan bowled effectively and with great style against all three of his competitors.
Fagan – Tonteri 267 – 190
Barrett – Fagan 152 – 235

Mai Ginge Jensen, who was seeded first before the Stepladder Finals, went down last with 247-207.

The streaming will start with Squad 10, Friday, 15 October, at 7pm (Lahti Time) and continuing through the weekend concluding with the Stepladder finals Sunday, 17 October.

Tune in and see the bowlers compete in this grand bowling tournament.

Here is the link to watch the Ebonite Lahti Open.

http://bambuser.com/channel/LahtiOpen2010

The stepladder finals, started out with the dane Kamilla Kjeldsen’s match vs fellow European bowler Torge Torgersen. Kamillia struggled with her strike shot througout the match and Tore only need a spare in the 10th frame to beat Kamilla. Scores 191 to Tore, and 176+8 for Kamilla.

In the semi final match, Tore met Pete Weber, classic Ryder Cup match, with Europe against the USA. Pete Weber won that match 215 – 183.

In the final match, the newly crowned World Champion Chris Barnes awaited Pete Weber. Chris started out strong, but had an open frame in the middle of the match. This wasn’t enough for Pete to get back into the game, so Chris Barnes wins the 2010 Vienna Open with the score 219 against Pete Webers 187.

Congratulations to Chris Barnes.

Pete Weber will tomorrow be in Randers Denmark for a bowling showcase/seminar with Storm’s Peter Somoff. Pete and Peter will then thuesday travel to Copenhagen for yet another showcase/seminar.

We will have blogs and pictures from this event also, so stay tuned.

• Chris Barnes, USA
• Tore Torgersen, NOR
• Kamilla Kjeldsen, DEN
• Pete Weber, USA

You can follow the live streaming of the finals here.

Goto http://www.viennaopen.com/db/index.php?n=472&id=476&sid=476

Where you can see scores after each game.

Bowlingdigital.com will be streaming the finals.

Yesterday the statistical cut was 1309 and after the first 3 squads of today it is now 1307.

Osku Palermaa and Chris Barnes both performed well today in squad 11 and 12 and both made the score of 1462 and is now 1 and 2. Jussila Perttu also made the top 8 in squad 12 with 1393 and the cut for top 8 now looks to be over 1400. A total of 21 bowlers has bowled more than the cut today, and the man on the bubble (as Bowlingdigital.com calls it) is Achim Grabowski with 1281.

We also saw a new leader in the doubles section today. Osku Palermaa and Tore Torgersen bowled 1462 and 1383 in squad 11 to go into the lead with 2845. In second place Chris Barnes and Mika Koivuniemi bowled 1462 and 1366 in squad 12. In total 7 teams crawled into the double-prizes today and the 20th spot is right now: Chris Klerk (1331) and Josh Blanchard (1269) with 2600. Statistically the teams has to make more than 2662 in order to win a double-prize.

Personally I’m still having trouble in game 2 and 3. I tried to control the damage today but failed miserably My gameplan for tomorrow is to stay more to the right – I need to stay out of trouble in order to post a score over 1300. The lanes opened up again in the end of the 3rd game, but with 355 in game 2 and 3 the sprint was a little to long for me My scores where: 238 – 185 – 170 – 224 – 223 – 258 and total 1298 gives me 1 pin less than what I made on Thursday.

But a good nights sleep, and ready to bowl again tomorrow in the 12 o’clock squad with Ulf Bolleby.

Written for Blogbowler.com by Jimmy Dan Mortensen, VBS Brunswick Staff, Denmark

So far it’s been a good start for the Danes as we already have Mik Stampe (Mission), Anders Lousdal (Plague), Carsten Hansen (Burst) and myself inside the cut. And Dennis Larsen shot the tournaments third 300 game this morning.

I’m going to play again tomorrow and see if I can make a little money in the doubles.

Thomas Larsen
Ebonite Staff Player – Denmark