22nd September, Hong Kong: Defending champions, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong and Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia took an emphatic victory over their challengers to retain the 33rd Hong Kong International Open Men's and Women's Masters titles which ended at SCAA Bowling Centre Saturday afternoon.

Hong Kong's most consistent performer and defending champion, Wu Siu Hong easily defeated challenger, Biboy Rivera of the Philippines, 254-227 to successfully retain the title he won last year. The victory is also Wu's third Hong Kong Open win after having earned his first crown in 2003.

At the start of the title match with Rivera, Wu started off with a double and then followed it up with 6 strikes in a row. While the Filipino fought back with a turkey from frames 2 to 4 and then another double in frames 6 and 7, Wu had already shut out his opponent to cruise to a comfortable victory.

The third-seed Filipino settled for second despite knocking out second-seed, Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand and winner of the first match, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE, 212-198-158.

"The lanes were as difficult as the first block yesterday which made it even harder to maintain the lead," said the relieved Wu. "I had to put in double effort and concentration. It's been a tiring two day finals and I'm glad that I could retain the title.

In the first stepladder match, Hussain defeated fourth-seed, Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia and Nico Valderama of the Philippines, 246-214-215 but could not repeat the form in the second encounter.

Meanwhile, Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia also had an easy victory over challenger and local hopeful, Joey Yip Ka Yan in the women's title match, 209-160 to retain the women's crown. But the Malaysian top-seed appeared to be lost in the match against Joey in the early stage of the match.

Shalin dropped the delivery into the gutter on her first ball of the fourth frame but fortunately made the spare. While the defending champion made sure she made no further mistakes, her opponent had two splits in frame 7 and frame 9 which decided the match.

The ex-national and runner-up had earned a crack at the title after she ousted second-seed, Angkana Netvriseth of Thailand and current Asian Ranked No. 1, Kim Eun Jung of Korea, 191-176-178 in the second match.

The Korean won the women's opening stepladder match outclassing fourth-seed, Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia and Lai Kin Ngoh of Malaysia, 248-166-187 but found the going tough in the second match and made no further progress.

"We played in the right-hand side lanes of the centre which was difficult but it was even harder today in the left," said the delighted champion, Shalin. "Joey bowled well in the two days finals and she really put in a good account of herself.

Both the champions led in both the first block and second block masters finals by comfortable margins going into the stepladder finals as top-seeds. Thailand's Surasak Manuwong missed the cut in seventh, just one pin off the sixth positioned qulifier. Indonesia's Happy Soediyono also miss the cut narrowly by 5 pins from Korea's Kim Eun Jung.

The top 16 Asian men and top 16 Asian women have qualified for the final leg of this year's tour - ABF Tour Hong Kong which will be staged at the new Hong Kong Bowling City at the Emax Shopping Center in Kowloon Bay September 23.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

21st September, Hong Kong: Defending champions, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong and Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia took pole position in the Men's and Women's Open Masters first block finals of the 33rd Hong Kong International Open at SCAA Bowling Centre Friday evening.

Hong Kong red hot favourite, Wu Siu Hong surged into the lead towards the latter stage of the 8-game block after reeling off 267, 235 and 264 in games 5 to 7 after trailing pace-setter, Ernie Cheng of Chinese Taipei in the opening stage.

Despite a 190 in his eighth and final game, Wu was able to hang on to the lead just by 6 pins from the consistent, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE on a total of 1854. Hussain, who won the inaugural ABF Tour Saudi leg in May this year, settled for second with 1848.

Thailand's top title contender, Yannaphon Larpapharat, who was way down the field in the early stages, crawled his way up to finish a creditable third with 1811 while pace-setter, Ernie Cheng ran out of steam and dropped to fourth with 1810.

"Each pair of lane was inconsistent which caused a bit of confusion for me," said the first block leader. "I had to make sure that I don't make silly mistakes to give away my lead. The scores are very close and I'll have to put extra effort tomorrow if I want to remain as top-seed.

Hong Kong's Leung Yuet Ming posted the first perfect game of the tournament in his eighth and final game to storm into a good fifth position ending the block with 1780 ahead of Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang, Filipino, Biboy Rivera and two Thais, Annop Arromsaranon and Surasak Manuwong ronding up the top 10.

While the finals of the men's division was a closely fought contest, defending champion, Shalin Zulkifli sailed into pole position with a comfortable 72 pins margin over her nearest rival, Angkana Netvriseth of Thailand.

Shalin started a blistering pace with 256 and 299 in her opening two games and although she only managed a 173 in her third game, the World Women's Team gold medalist quickly regain her composure continuously posting high games to end the block with 1884, higher than the men.

"I started off well but somehow lost my rythmn in the third which accounted for the 173," said Shalin after the end of the first block. "But fortunately, I was able to get back my rythmn and hang on to the lead. "The lanes are not easy but fortunately I had the ball speed needed to reach the pocket quicker and carry the pins.

Asian Ranked No. 1, Kim Eun Jung of Korea kept pace with the leader but towards the end dropped off into fifth spot. Angkana snatched second spot with 1812 ahead of ex-international, Joey Yip Ka Yan of Hong Kong took third with 1777.

ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion and Malaysia's ex-national, Lai Kin Ngoh did well to take up fourth ahead of Korea's Kim Eun Jung with 1718 to Kim's 1709 in fifth. Indonesia's Tannya Roumimper and Sharon Limansantoso made up the top 6.

The finalists will bowl another 8 games in the second block at the end of which, the top 6 in both the divisions will make the cut for the stepladder grand finals. The top 16 Asian men and top 16 Asian women will also qualify for the this year's ABF Tour final leg which will be staged at the new Hong Kong Bowling City in Kowloon Bay.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

21st September, Hong Kong: Singapore Sports School youths made a clean sweep of the 33rd Hong Kong International Open Men's Graded A Masters finals when Justin Lim Chun Liang led a 1-2-3 finish with Basil Low Eng Howe and Jack Leong in second and third.

Justin led all the way in the 14-game finals to bag his second consecutive international title. The 15-year-old won the Youth Under-18 Masters crown on Thursday morning in the same competition.

At the start of the grueilling 14-game finals, Singapore's Jeremy Fang took an early lead with a 225 in the opening game but the lead was soon taken over by another Singaporean, Andrew Lee after he fired a 268 in the second with Justin closing in.

But Justin set the lanes ablazed with two superb games of 244 and 256 in his next two games to take over the lead and built up a comfortable 80 pins cushion. Despite back-to-back low games of 162 and 168 in games 5 and 6, the Singapore youngster was able to remain in front.

After the slight set back, Justin was able to regain his composure and went on to cruise to a comfortable victory with 2879. His teammates, Basil Low and Jack Leong kept in close contact and was also able to over-powered Andrew and Jeremy to claim second and third with 2780 and 2756.

"I'm gald to have won my second title and I've to thank sir (Mike Lam) for giving me encouragement after my two low games," said the delighted but very humble Justin. "I also like to thank my school for giving us opportunity to come here to compete. Andrew Lee and Jeremy Fang finished fourth and fifth position to give Singapore the top 5 positions in the finals.

Singapore Sports School almost won the Women's A Masters crown but settled for second when New Hui Fen finished second to Peggy Lam Lai Ha, who amassed 1927 over the 10-game finals played at the same time.

Lam led from game 2 onwards and stretched her lead to 86 pins at the halfway mark but with New putting in her challenge in the second half, the champion was to prevail and went on to claim her first-ever title.

"I've to thank Ricky Li of Ruby Bowling Club who was giving me advice during the finals," commented the champion after her victory. A secretary with an engineering firm in Hong Kong, the 41-year-old trains with ex-international C.K. Chiang at Tsuen Wan.

New Hui Fen settled for second with 1904 while Eva Leong Mei Sheung of Hong Kong, finished third with 1758. Chatherine Yeun and Vicky Yeung Wai Chi rounded up the top 5 with 1724 and 1720 respectively.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

20th September, Hong Kong: Current Asian Ranked No. 1, Kim Eun Jung of Korea shot to the lead of the Women's Open Masters leaderboard in the 33rd Hong Kong International Open on the final day of qualifying.

Kim, who leads the Asian Ranking table with a hefty 269 points despite not featuring in the recent World Women's Championship in Monterry, Mexico, got a great start to her qualifying rounds with 248. The Korean followed it up with 256 in the second and looked set to become the first women to reach the 1,000 mark with 243 in the third.

She had two bad breaks after a split in the third frame and a slight mistake in the seventh frame to only manage 176 in her final game. But her effort was enough to give her a total of 923 and the lead.

"I had 174 pins over after the third game, so I thought I could try a different line in the last game," said Kim after the 3.00pm squad. "I had to try out a different line when the lane started to dry up.

Overnight leader, Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia dropped to second after her superb 921 posted on Tuesday evening with fellow compatriot, Putty Armein in third with 914. Another Indonesian, Happy Soediyono of Jaya Ancol Bowl and Thailand's Saowapha Kunaksorn rounded up the top 5.

There were no changes in the men's division with Thailand's Surasak Manuwong maintaining the lead he took yesterday with 956. Filipino, Nico Valderama also remained in second with 924 but Australia's Andrew Frawley shot to third with a superb 918.

While there were also no changes in the local pool for both the men's and women's division, the limelight was stolen by Singapore Sports School's youngster, Jack Leong after he posted the highest 4-game score of the championship.

Leong, who finished third in the Youth Under-18 finals this morning, posted 957 to take over the lead in the Youth Open division. The 15-year-old knocked down 234, 239, 248 and 236 in his attempt at the 5.00pm squad.

Qualifying ends late tonight at around 12.30am and the Graded A finals will be staged at 9.30am while the first block of 8 games finals of the Men's and Women's Open finals at 2.30pm.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

20th September, Hong Kong: Singapore Sports School youths almost clinched a 1-2 finish in the Youth Under-18 Masters finals of the 33rd Hong Kong International Open as Justin Lim bagged the title with teammate, Jack Leong settling for third.

Justin Lim, who won this year's Indonesia Open Youth Under-18 title in July, followed it up with a grand double capturing the Youth Under-18 crown again Thursday morning at SCAA Bowling Center.

The 15-year-old Secondary 3 Singapore Sports School student set the lanes on fire as he amassed a 10-game total of 2254 with an incredible 225.4 average. Apart from a low game of 152 in the eighth game, Justin posted the nine games above the 200-mark with three high games of 252 in the second, 266 in the sixth and rounded off the final game with 268.

But Justin still had to bowl an extra game in the stepladder finals to clinch his second international title after he defeated challenger, Ernie Cheng of Chinese Taipei, 212-209 in the title match.

Cheng had earlier denied Singapore Sports School a 1-2 finish when he knocked out third-seed, Jack Leong, 232-170 in the first match. Cheng settled for second while Jack, who third with 2020 in the earlier finals, remained third.

Top qualifier and Hong Kong national team member, Michael Tsang took fourth spot with 1988 followed by two additional Singapore Sports School youths, Basil Low and Christopher Hwang in fifth and sixth positions.

Qualifying will end tonight and the Open Masters finals will be staged over two blocks of 8 games on Friday and Saturday.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

19th September, Hong Kong: Ex-international, M. Terdporn of Thailand clinched the Senior Masters title of the 33rd Hong Kong International Open at SCAA Bowling Center on late Wednesday evening.

Terdporn, who was trailing pace-setter, Chiang Kwok Fai of Hong Kong until the sixth game, took over the lead from seventh game onwards and went on to take the crown with a total of 1649 over the 8-game finals.

At the start of the finals, Louis Cheung, with a handicap of 96 pins set the early pace to lead for the first two games but soon found the pace too hot to handle. Hong Kong's ex-international, Chiang Kwok Fai immediately settled down to a swift pace to grab the lead with Terdporn hot on his heels.

At the halfway-mark, Chaing had as much as 43 pins lead but saw his lead reduced to 11 pins after the sixth game. Despite putting up two good games of 192 and 201, Terdporn's 220 and 195 in the last two games was good enough to snatch victory.

Chiang settled for second with 1638 with Ruby Bowling Club's Danny Fung Kai Yu finishing well to take third spot with 1563. A further 13 pins away was Hong Kong TV actor, Charles Tam Chuen Hing finishing fourth with 1550.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

19th September, Hong Kong: Surasak Manuwong of Thailand staked his claim on the Men's Open title of the 33rd Hong Kong International Open after taking over the lead at SCAA Bowling Center on Wednesday.

2004 Malaysian Open Men's Graded champion, Nico Valderama of Philippines took the lead with a 4-game score of 924 on Tuesday only to see Thailand's Surasak Manuwong taking over the lead with a superb 956 this morning.

The 2005 Thailand Open runner-up knocked down lines of 265, 240, 234 and 217 to top the Men's overseas pool with Valderaman in second with 924. Monday's leader, Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia improved to take up third spot with 916 followed by another Thai, Annop Arromsaranon fourth with 914.

Guam's Jay Leon Guerrero took fifth spot with 907 with ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion, Biboy Rivera of the Philippines and Taiwan's Ernie Cheng becoming the only ones to score 900-mark.

Meanwhile, Indonesian women dominated the overseas pool with Tannya Roumimper taking over the lead with 921 relegating teammate, Putty Armein into second spot with 914 posted on Tuesday. Happy Soediyono finished third with 874.

Tannya, who won the 2006 Asian Championship Doubles gold medal with Putty Armein, posted lines of 238, 235, 224 and 224 for an impressive 230.25 average for the top spot. Current Asian Ranked No. 1, Kim Eun Jung of Korea finished a creditable fourth, just one pin off Happy with 873.

There were no changes in both the women's and men's local pool with Chan Suk Han, Vanessa Fung and Sylvia Kong occupying the top 3 spot while Rickle Kam, Cyrus Cheng and Eric Tseng tanking the top 3 in the men's local pool.

Qualifying will end tomorrow (September 20) and the Open Masters finals will be staged over two blocks of 8 games on Friday and Saturday. The Senior Masters finals will be contested at 10.00pm later.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

17th September, Hong Kong: Indonesian top contender, Ryan Lalisang took an early lead by topping the Men's Open Masters overseas pool of the on-going 33rd Hong Kong International Open at SCAA Bowling Centre Monday evening.

Lalisang posted a moderate 882 in his 4-game qualifying round to top the Men's table ahead of Tim Mack of USA in second with 772 and Takahiro Yoshida of the Philippines third with 757. Currently third in the Asian Ranking with 230 points, a victory in the Masters will move the Indonesian second above Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong.

But Wu, who is the defending champion, will surely fend off the challenges as he look forward to winning his third Hong Kong Open title after victories in 2004 and 2006. Hong Kong national keglers seeded in the top 5 were Rickle Kam Siu Lun, Cyrus Cheung, Eric Tseng and Daniel Yiu.

In the mixed pool, Victor Yim topped the table with an impressive 938 followed by 2003 ABF Tour Hong Kong lef champion, Michael Tsang in second with 935 and Ken Lim third with 929. Ex-national, Eric Lau and Jeffrey Choi rounded up the top 5.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's Putty Armein took over the lead from fellow-compatriot, Happy Soediyono with a superb 914. Teammate, Sharon Limansantoso also improved with 856 to slot into second spot while overnight leader, Soediyono droped to third with 843.

ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion, Lai Kin Ngoh occupied fourth spot with 786 with Lily Suhaimi of Indonesia rounding up the top 5 with 735. The top 5 seeded local qualifiers remained unchanged.

Chan Suk Han continued to lead Vanessa Fung, Sylvia Kong and Katherine Lau in the top 4 seeded positions. Ex-national, Cookie Lee topped the mixed pool with 849 followed by Joey Yip and Melody Yeung second and third with 814 and 808 respectively.

Qualifying continues through to September 20 and the Masters finals will be staged on September 21 and 22. The top 16 Asian men and top 16 Asian women will also make the cut for the final leg of this year's ABF Tour, the Hong Kong leg to be held on September 23.

Photos by Terence Yaw.

16th September, Hong Kong: Top local women, Vanessa Fung and Chan Suk Han will be vying for the elusive Masters title as the 33rd Hong Kong International Open got underway at SCAA Bowling Center on Thursday.

Vanessa Fung, who was crowned the this year's Kuwait Open women champion, has consistently featured herself well in several international open and has placed the top Hong Kong women sixth in the current Asian Ranking standings.

She also won a silver medal in the Singles event of the 22nd East Asian Pacific Championship in Macau in May this year. The 25-year-old sits comfortably as the second seeded local qualifier in the Masters qualifying table.

Chan Suk Han, another Hong Kong national bowler, led the local pool as the top-seed and the duo will be leading Hong Kong's charge in an attempt to win the women's crown. Defending champion, Shalin Zulkifli will arrive 19th September to defend the title she won last year.

Meanwhile, the first of the overseas copetitors to arrive were the Indonesians. SEA Games Doubles gold medalist, Happy Seodiyono topped the overseas pool with 843 followed by Sharon Limansantoso in second with 786. Newly-crowned, ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion, Lai Kin Ngoh finished third with 773.

In the men's division, defending champion, Wu Siu Hong will be the top Hong Kong bowler to fend off challenges from overseas men for the coveted title. Wu, who has won the men's title twice, will be vying for his third title.

A win will also move the 23-year-old to the top of the Asian Ranking standings as he is second to current leader, Jason Belmonte of Australia, who has exactly 300 points to Wu's 274. Leading the local seeded table was Rickle Kam Siu Lun followed by Cyrus Cheung second and Eric Tseng third.

Once the majority of the overseas participants arrive, the scores will surely be hotly contested. The defending champion together with the top 12 local men, top 12 overseas men and top 11 mixed pool comprising of 36 qualifiers will contest the finals on September 21 and 22.

The defending champion together with the top 10 local women, top 9 overseas women and the top 8 mixed pool will also be contesting the finals on September 21 and 22. The ABF Tour Hong Kong leg will also be the final leg of this year's tour for Asian bowlers to make the grand finals.

The tour will be held on Septmeber 23 where the top 16 men and top 16 women from the Hong Kong International Open masters finals will qualify.

Photos by Terence Yaw.