28th February, Doha: Alex Liew of Malaysia kicked off the ABF Tour 2005 with a convincing win over local favourite, Mubarak Al-Muraikhi, 256-195 to claim the Qatar leg title at Qatar Bowling Center this afternoon.

Liew made the finals after edging out teammate, Aaron Kong, 243-241 in the second semifinal match while the runner-up, Mubarak knockout fellow-countrymen, Ahmed Shaheen 221-205 in the first semifinal match.

The 29-year-old proshop supervisor opened up the match with a turkey to put pressure on his opponent, Mubarak Al-Muraikhi of Qatar. Mubarak started with a strike but an early split in the second frame and an open frame in the fifth soon allowed Liew to settled down quickly to string together another tourkey from frame 5.

Despite putting up a strong fight with a turkey from frame 6, the runner-up was not able to close the gap when Liew went on to strike home for a convincing 256 while his opponent could only score 195. The champion went home with a prize of US$2,000 with Mubarak settling for US$1,200.

Liew, who was seeded second, easily defeated Mohmood Alattar of UAE, 223-151 in the first round and Mohammed Al-Mannai of Qatar, 257-150

before defeating Aaron Kong in the semifinals. Mubarak took out teammate, Bandar Al-Shafi, 216-192 in round 1 and ABF Tour TOC champion, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, 207-204 in round 2 earlier.

Ahmed Shaheen made the semifinals after he disposed off Bahrain's Jamal Ahmed Al-Moosa, 189-160 in round 1 and Malaysia's Azidi Ameran, 222-164 in round 2 while Malaysia's Aaron Kong knocked out Singapore's Remy Ong, 236-194 in round 1 and Bahrain's Mohamed Jahani, 191-150. Both Kong and Shaheen took home US$750 each for their effort.

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 - Qatar 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 Dr. Danny Santos.