19th June, Manila: Filipina, Apple Posadas drove the local supporters wild as she tasted sweet success by defeating Choy Poh Lai of Malaysia in the women's final match of the ABF Tour Philippines leg to capture her first-ever international title.

It was a classical match to say the least with Choy setting the pace with a double in the first two frames, the fourth and fifth frames while Posadas could only alternate between spares and strikes through to the fourth frame. The champion then started to fire all cylinders with a turkey from frame five onwards and never looked back since.

The nail-biting finale ended with Posadas doubling up in the ninth and tenth frame which forced Choy to strike out in order to take the match. There was a

sigh of relief and cheers from the crowd as Choy knocked down 9 pins in the 11th frame to finish the match on 224 to Posadas' 228.

Posadas, 19, who easily dispatched another Malaysian youngster, Siti Safiyah in the women's second semifinal match, 248-160 before setting up the match with Choy. Malaysia again came home empty handed despite having three women in the semifinals exactly like the men did in the Thailand leg last month.

The match between Shalin Zulkifli and the runner-up saw Shalin having a split in the third frame and not being able to muster up any connecting strikes to level the game while Choy had four strikes-in-a-row to make up for two open frames in the second and eighth frames.

Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE captured his second tour title when he edged Australian challenger, Andrew Frawley in the men's final match, 247-237. Shaker's last success was winning the ABF Tour Indonesia leg last year.

Frawley set a cracking pace with a turkey in an attempt to shut out Shaker but the champion responded back with four strikes-in-a-row from frames four onwards to move ahead of Frawley by the eighth frame. The Aussie then struck out from frames ninth for a total of 237 which forced Shaker needing to strike out as well.

With the crowd firmly behind the champion, Shaker did exactly that to end the match with 247 in another thrilling finish to a superb high scoring finale. It must have been a lucky day for Shaker as he was handed a win in the first

semifinal match after local hopeful, C J Suarez fumbled in the last few frames of the match with open frames despite starting off with a turkey.

Shaker edged Suarez, 182-173 to face Frawley in the finals while the Aussie outclassed another Filipino, Markwin Tee, 227-194 in the other semifinal match. The ABF Tour will move to the sixth leg in Jakarta, Indonesia in August 27 - 28, 2005.

The ABF Tour will comprise eight Legs and a Grand Final, the Tournament of Champions. Each Leg will be staged over one or two competition days where the top 16 men and 16 women bowlers from the preceding International Open Masters Event (Open Grade) will compete in a one-game match play knock-out competition for the individual men's and women's titles.

The Tournament of Champions will be staged over four competition days where the top 16 men and 16 women bowlers (based on ABF Tour ranking points), will qualify to compete over four rounds of competition for the coveted men's and women's ABF Tour Champion titles.

ABF Tour - Philippines Leg is organized by ABF in association with Philippines Bowling Congress, supported by Asian Bowling Digest, Playdium Bowling Center and the local TV station, NBN.

For further information and details please contact ABF Tour Committee Marketing and Event Management Division at Tel: (852) 2810 5191; Fax: (852) 28105192; Mr. Ritchie Lai (Mobile: (852) 93598669; email: ritchie.lai@tndgroup.com) or Mr. Kelvin Pong (Mobile: (852) 9100 0958; email: Kelvin.pong@tndgroup.com).