8th January, Jakarta: The ABF Tour Tournament of Champions title went to Malaysia for the second time as Daniel Lim outclassed Surasak Manuwong, 256-191 to claim the men's title while Jennifer Tan gave Singapore its first win for the women's crown.

Daniel, 29 from Port Klang in Malaysia, immediately went on a strikefest as he strung together five strikes in a row to take a commanding lead at the halfway mark. His opponent, Surasak had to contend with two splits in the second and fourth frames to trail by 56 pins.

Despite coming back strongly with turkey from frame five, the gap was just too much for Surasak to do anything. Daniel then finished off in style with a turkey himself before marking the final frame for a high game of 256 to Surasak's 191.

"I knew I only needed to spare frame 9 to win, and instead told myself to concentrate as another important shot. I'm glad I've made it. It's the biggest win in my whole bowling career," said Daniel. "My coach Chris and I had a discussion after the warm up and we both agreed at the end what I should do."

The champion had earlier dashed Indonesia's hopes of a home victory when he edged Ryan Lalisang, 197-170 in the men's second semifinal match while the runner-up had an easy victory over TOC debutant, Aaron Kong, 178-153 in the first match.

The Malaysian champion won the top prize of US$20,000 and the prestigious title to kick start his 2006 campaign and the runner-up settled for US$6,000, not too bad considering he only made the finals after Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar pulled out.

The final match between top-seed, Jennifer Tan and Lai Kin Ngoh was a lowly affair as bot the contenders struggled in the very difficult conditions. The champion had two open frames in the third and eight frames while Lai started with a split in the first and seventh frames and ending disasterously with two more in the ninth and tenth frames.

Jennifer Tan eventually emerged as the champion defeating her opponent, 174-149 to win US$10,000 top prize while Lai failed to emulate her teammate, Wendy Chai, who won the coveted title last year. Lai took home US$4,000 for her efforts.

"I'm really happy to win the TOC title as I've finally beaten myself," said Jennifer with tears in her eyes after the finals. "I can now tell myself I can do it again the next time now that I've finally conquered this problem.

The champion had earlier edged Wang Yu Ling of Chinese Taipei, 211-201 to continue her relentless march and determination toward the title in the first of the women's semifinals while the runner-up had outclassed last year's champion, Wendy Chai, 220-149 in the second match.

The loosing semifinalists, Ryan Lalisang and Aaron Kong settled for US$2,500 each and Wang Yu Ling and Wendy Chai took home US2,000 a peice. The prize money were sponsored by Jaya Ancol Bowling Center.

The finals today saw yet another stella year for Asian Bowling Federation in which eight legs were held which began in February in Doha, Qatar and ending with the last leg in October in Singapore. The top 16 men and top 16 women made the TOC via ranking points earned from all the legs contested. Visit www.abftour.com for LIVE scores.

Photos courtesy of Jaya Ancol Bowl.

7th January, Jakarta: The field narrows down to the last eight as they moved into the exciting semifinals after the quarterfinals of the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions were contested Saturday evening at Jaya Ancol Bowl.

Local crowd favourite, Ryan Lalisang kept Indonesia's hope of capturing the title alive as the 24-year-old took out top-ranked, Alex Liew, 179-169. Liew had a chance take the match when he needed to strike out in the last frame but luck just ran out on him at the crucial stage.

Top-seed, Yannaphon Larpapharat went down to teammate, Surasak Manuwong of Thailand, 204-193 but all in not lost as Surasak became the first Thai to make the TOC semifinals. TOC debutant, Aaron Kong and Daniel Lim gave Malaysia plenty to celebrate as both booked their semifinal spots.

Kong easily defeated the struggling, Andrew Frawley of Australia, 204-161, to get nearer to his taget of reaching the top 3 before the start of the finals while Daniel Lim has gone from strenght to strenght after he disposed off Round 1 leader, Remy Ong of Singapore, 201-171.

Surasak Manuwong will meet Aaron Kong in the first semifinal match while the local supporters will eagerly await the match between Ryan Lalisang and Daneil Lim.

The knock-out quarterfinals started with the women's division which saw last year's champion, Wendy Chai edging TOC debutant, Zandra Aziela, 173-160 to give Malaysia its first semifinal spot. The second all-Malaysian match between Indonesia leg champion, Lai Kin Ngoh and Choy Poh Lai proved more exciting with Lai getting the better of Choy by 4 pins, 219-214.

Top-seed, Jennifer Tan crusied to an easy victory over Filipina, Liza Clutario, 224-167 to march on into the semifinals while the final berth went to World Championship triple Gold medalist, Wang Yu Ling after she outclassed her teammate, Tsai Hsin Yi, 248-173. Wang also chalked up the highest game in the quarterfinals.

Destined to meet each other in the semifinals will be the two Malaysian

women, Lai Kin Ngoh and Wendy Chai while the two spinners, Jennifer and Wang will battle for the other final spot. Visit www.abftour.com for LIVE scores.

Photos courtesy of Jaya Ancol Bowl.

6th January, Jakarta: Seven countries will be represented in an even field as the top 8 men and top 8 women made the quarterfinals of the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions at the end of the 15-game round-robin matchplay Friday evening.

At the start of the second block of today's matches, Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand set a blistering pace bring home lines of 228, 231, 217 in the first three games to narrow donw the gap between himself and the leader, Remy Ong to 9 pins. But the World Youth CHampionship Masters Gold medalist, suffered a poor game of 171 in the fourth to fall back to a 63 pins deficit.

Yannaphon fought on galantly to reduce the gap and was just five pins adrift going into the final match. A 205 plus a 5 point bonus for a draw was good enough to see the Thai snatching the lead and finishing top seed with 3320 pinfalls.

Overnight leader, Remy Ong of Singapore settled for second with 3296 while

home crowd favourite, Ryan Lalisang made a big move from tenth overnight to third place with a high game of 290 followed by 246 and 278.

Malaysia's Aaron Kong, Daniel Lim and Alex Liew maintained their strong pace to make the quarterfinals with Aaron in fourth position on a total of 3226, Alex in fifth with 3145 and Daniel sixth with 3145.

Last year’s winner Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong, who was eighth before the final game, ended up in 11th with a poor game of 133 in the final match while Surasak Manuwong of Thailand shot a high 234 to snatch the eighth place. Andrew Frawley who played Wu in the final game, only dropped to seventh from sixth despite of a poor 152.

In the women's division, top-ranked women bowler of the 2005 Tour, Lai Kin Ngoh of Malaysia, made a massive move from seventh overnight to finish second with 3054, just 11 pins behind leader, Jennifer Tan of Singapore. Last year’s winner, Wendy Chai also made an impressive jump from sixth to third place with 3027.

Chinese Taipei's Wang Yu Ling and Tsai Hsin Yi finished fourth and fifth with 3000 and 2969 respectively with the less fourtunate, Chu Yu Chieh failing to make the cut in 14th. The most improved Malaysian was Choy Poh Lai, who was in 14th yesterday, made a huge jump to edge Tang Joh Six by 4 pins for final spot of the quarterfinals with 2851.

Last year's runner-up, Esther Cheah, who was in eighth place with one more game to go, bowled a poor 145 to miss the cut by 24 pins in 11th position

while youngster, Siti Safiyah ended her debut in the TOC in 13th place with 2787.

The draw for tomorrow’s quarterfinals was conducted at the centre after the end of the round-robin. The Malaysian women bowlers have assured themselves of two semifinals slots as they were drawn to play each other. Wendy will face Zandra while Lai Kin Ngoh will meet Poh Lai. Filipina, Liza Clutario is matched up against top-seed, Jennifer and the two Taiwanese women is drawn together.

In the men’s division, Aaron is matched up against Andrew Frawley of Australia, Daniel will meet Remy Ong and Alex will face Ryan Lalisang. Two Thais, Surasak Manuwong will face a daunting task of top-seed, Yannaphon. The women's matches will start at 2.00pm and the men at 3.00pm local time. Visit www.abftour.com for LIVE scores.

Photos courtesy of Jaya Ancol Bowl.

5th January, Jakarta: Remy Ong and Jennifer Tan set a cracking pace to lead the men's and women's field of 16 in the first block of the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions preliminary round at Jaya Ancol Bowl.

Singapore's southpaw Remy Ong, 27, set the pace for the opening eight-game block this afternoon, bowling just two sub-200 games and with a high of 268 to hold just a 15-pin buffer over Thailand's challenger, Yannaphon Larpapharat. The leader was trailing the Thai by 13 pins at the halfway mark but the 268 game push Ong to the front of the pack.

Yannaphon, who made the finals in ninth and two spots above Ong, settled for second with a total of 1785 to the leader's 1802. Malaysian took the next three positions with SEA Games two Gold medalist, Aaron Kong leading teammates, Daniel Lim and Ranked No. 1, Alex Liew.

Another Thai, Surasak Manuwong, who made the finals after Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar pulled out, did well to take up sixth position with 1671 ahead of UAE's Shaker Al-Hassan in seventh spot with 1629.

Local hopeful and SEA Games Singles Gold medalist, Ryan Lalisang could only finished tenth, just one rung above defending champion, Wu Sui Hong from Hong Kong in 11th while his younger teammate, Michael Tsang struggled to trail the field.

In the women's division, Jennifer Tan gave Singapore supporters plenty to cheer for when the Thailand leg champion led from start to finish to end the first block with a 51-pin cushion. The top three positions belonged to the spinners as Tsai Hsin Yi finished second ahead of teammate, Wang Yu Ling in third.

Tan won 6 of the 8-game matches to amassed 1737 and an average of 209. SEA Games Masters Gold medalist, Liza Clutario of the Philippines took fourth spot with 1588 ahead of six Malaysian ladies, led by Zandra Aziela in fifth.

Defending champion, Wendy Chai finished sixth, Indonesia leg champion, Lai Kin Ngoh seventh, Tang Joh Six eighth, Siti Safiyah Amirah ninth and Esther Cheah completing the top 10.

Both the men and women will play another 7 games tomorrow, 6th January at the end of which the top 8 will make the cut for the exciting quarterfinals knockout matches before the semifinals and finals matches on the 7th and 8th January.

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

The ABF Tour - TOC will be telecast on some of the key television stations in the region. 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).

Photos courtesy of Jaya Ancol Bowl.