20th March, Kuwait: The final day of the inaugural ABF Tour Kuwait Leg belonged to the Aussies as Andrew Frawley emerged as champion as he defeated Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang in the final match while newly-crowned, Kuwait International Open settled for fourth place.

Two Aussies, one Indonesian and one from Hong Kong were amongst the fourteen East Asian who made the top 16 spots in the second ABF Tour in Kuwait. In the deciding match, Frawley out-classed challenger, Ray Lalisang of Indonesia, 257-177 to make amends for finishing third in the preceeding Kuwait International Open.

Frawley first easiy defeated Kuwaiti, Basel Al Anzi with the highest game of the finals, 276-196 and then went on to knock out another Kuwaiti, Ayad Al Amiri, 243-216 before ousting southpaw, Bandar Al-Shafi of Qatar in the semifinals, 238-205.

The runner-up, winner of the inaugural ABF Tour leg in Malaysia last year, too had a smooth path towards the finals when knocked out 2002 Malaysian Open champion, Saeed Al-Hajri 224-191 in Round 1. In Round 2, Lalisang

again took the match easily against Kuwait's Khalid Dubyan 232-178. Lady luck was with Lalisang when he eadged top-seed, Jason Belmonte of Australia in his semifinals, 165-152. But his luck ran out in the crucial match going down to the champion.

Frawley bagged the top prize of US$2,000 and earned 75 points while Lalisang settled for US$1,300 and 60 points. Bandar Al-Shafi and Jason Belmonte picked up US$750 each and earned 46 and 45 points respectively.

The ABF Tour 2005 comprises 8 Legs and a Grand Final. Top 16 men and 16 women bowlers from the preceding International Open Masters Event (Open Grade) will be qualified and competed in a one-game match play knock-out competition for the individual men's and women's titles.

Highlights of the ABF Tour - Kuwait will be televised later on local television stations of the eight countries where the tour is being held. It is also broadcast later from parts of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, China and Australasia with an estimated audience of around 90 million.

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. Visit www.abftour.com for LIVE scores.

Photos courtesy of Kuwait Bowling Federation.