19th December, Doha: Singapore's Remy Ong captured his biggest career victory when he narrowly edged Sweden's Peter Ljung, 416-414 to clinch the 9th Qatar International Open title on Saturday evening.

In the two-game total pinfall title match, No. 1 seed, Remy Ong had to covert the crucial 4-8 split in the tenth frame and a nine pin count to take the first match, 198-191. But the Singaporean open in his first frame of the second match as Ljung double his opening two frames.

Ong made up some ground when he knocked down a double in the fourth and fifth frames and when Ljung came across a split in the seventh frame, the match came down to the final two frames to decide the champion.

The top seed struck out from the ninth frame to end with 216 and a two-game total of 416 while Ljung also struck out for a 223 game for a total of 414 allowing Ong a narrow victory.

"The lanes changed very quickly and I had to make a lot of adjustments," said the estatic 31-year-old champion. "Since both of us are left-handed, it prove extremely difficult.

"For sure I was tensed and a bit nervous but I could see that Peter (Ljung) too was as tense. I've won the Qatar Open way back in 2005 and I thought I could win it again last year after I finished as top seed too. But it didn't turn out the way I wanted. But this time round, it's simply amazing."

Ong had ousted No. 4 seed, Andrew Frawley of Australia, 435-405 in the first semifinal match to advance ti the finals. Last year, Ong was eliminated by England's Dominic Barrett, 439-466 despite finishing as top seed.

Ljung had a convincing victory over No. 3 seed and the sole women finalist, Britt Brondsted of Denmark, 444-397 to face the Singaporean in an-all lefty final. Ong won the top prize of 30,000 Euro while Ljung settled for 15,000 Euro.

Frawley and Brondsted took home 5,000 Euro each as the losing semifinalists. England's Nicki Ainge and Finland's Osku Palermaa won 2,000 Euro each as the EBT Ranking winner. The EBT prize was

presented by EBTF President and FIQ secretary general, Addie Ophelders.

The champion had earlier breezed through Stage 3 in the lead with 1370 and another identical 1370 in Stage 4 with a comfortable margin of 135 pins ahead of his nearest rival. The southpaw amassed a total of 2740 to advance into the knockout stage as No. 1 seed.

Ljung finished second with 2605 ahead of Brondsted in third with 2594 and Frawley making the semifinals in fourth with 2521. Top qualifier, Martin Larsen missed the cut by 21 pins with 2500.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

18th December, Doha: Another Swede, Robert Andersson snatched pole position at the end of the Stage 2 finals of the 9th Qatar International Bowling Championship from Norwegian, Tore Torgersen in the final game on Friday evening.

Robert Andersson, who almost shot the tournament's third perfect game with 297 in the final game of the earlier Stage 1 finals to advance into Stage 2. And the Swede shot a poor third game to slip down to eighth after a better start with 247 and 224 in the first two games of the second stage.

But this time round Andersson's high game came much earlier after he recovered with 273 in the fourth to haul himself up to fourth behind pace setter, Andrew Frawley of Australia.

The Swede did lead the opening game but only by 1 pin ahead of Norway's Tore Torgersen but could not keep pace as England's Dominic Barrett took over after the second game again just 1 pin ahead of Torgersen.

Barrett continue to lead by 1 pin again at the halfway point but had to give away the lead to Frawley as the pace got hotter at the fourth game. Torgersen's 265 in the fifth game gave the Norwegian the lead while the rest slipped down with lower games.

Andersson finished strongest of the rest to end the stage with 1392 for pole position after Torgersen gave up the lead with a poor 175 on 1379. Likewise, Frawley also dropped his pace with 188 but was fortunate enough to take third spot with 1348.

Barrett and Mads Sanbekken of Norway finished fourth and fifth spots with 1344 and 1340 respectively. Denmark's Paul Hutchinson and Canada's Mark Buffa took sixth and seventh positions with 1325 and 1318.

Sweden's Kim Bolleby took eighth position with 1300 followed by compatriot, Peter Ljung ninth with 1281. Singapore's Remy Ong snatched the tenth and final spot with 1280 after striking out in his last two frames.

Australia's southpaw, George Frilingos missed the cut by 15 pins after a poor final game of 186 and a total of 1265. Stage 1 leader, Mathias Arup of Sweden failed to repeat his form to end in 21st while second-placed Zulmazran Zulkifli of Malaysia also had a poor run to finish 16th position.

The top 10 advanced into the Stage 3 finals together with the top 6 qualifiers from the preliminary rounds over the past week for another

six games. The top 8 at the end of Stage 3 will proceed into Stage 4 for another 6 games with pins carried forward.

The top 4 finishers at the end of Stage 4 will proceed further into the knockout Stage 5 finals in which the No. 1 seed will be matched up against the No. 4 seed while No. 2 seed will face No. 3 seed for a two-match total pinfalls.

The winner will meet in the championship match on a two-game total pinfalls to decide the champion and a chance to win the top prize of 30,000 Euro and 15,000 Euro as first runnerup. The losers in Stage 5 will receive 5,000 Euro each.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

18th December, Doha: Mathias Arup of Sweden upstaged strong field to finish comfortably in the lead Stage 1 Finals of the 9th Qatar International Open Bowling Championship ahead of Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli in second and USA's Tim Mack third.

Denmark's Thomas Larsen got off the mark with a cracking 267 in his opening game to lead another Dane, Jesper Agerbo by 3 pins when the field of 36 finalists took to the lanes with Norway's Tore Torgersen in third a further 16 pins away.

Another good game of 226 in the second kept the Swede in the lead 5 pins ahead of his compatriot, Agerbo in second followed by Torgersen still in third. As Larsen managed only 199 in the third game, Mathias Arup of Sweden stormed into the front with a superb 256 to take over the running midway through the finals.

With 222 in the fourth game from Arup, the lanky Swede was able to take his lead to 20 pins from Torgersen closing in while Larsen and Agerbo failed to keep up the hot pace.

Arup fired a sizzling fifth game of 277 to move away from the field but had American Tim Mack shooting a massive game of 289 to move into second spot followed by Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli a close third.

The Swede cruised to a comfortable end to the finals with another superb 244 for a 6-game total of 1444 with Zulmazran ending stronger to snatch second spot with 1338. Mack finished third a further 1 pin away with 1337.

"It has been a tough week during the qualifying rounds but today somehow everything was just perfect," said the 26-year-old Mathias Arup from Gothenburg, south western part of Sweden. "Today I had the pin carry I wanted."

Australia's Andrew Frawley did well to tie fourth spot with the American while Robert Andersson almost shot a perfect game with 297 to finish in the top 5 on 1302. Kim Bolleby of Sweden took the 18th and final spot to advance into the Stage 2 finals with 1238.

Missing the cut in a disappointing run was defending champion, Nina Flack of Sweden, who only managed 1131 with the 48 pin handicap. Early pace-setter, Jesper Agerbo was even more disappointing missing a cut in 23rd.

EBT top ranked women, Nicki Aigne of England also dropped out in 28th with two other women, Kirsten Penny of England and Tina Hulsch of Germany crashing out.

The top 18 finishers will be joined by positions 7 to 12 qualifying round to contest another 6 games in Stage 2 finals after lane maintenance.

Qatar Bowling Federation also celebrated the nation's 45th National Day at the foyer of Qatar Bowling Center with a huge ice-cream cake witnessed by Ahmed Mula, QBF secretary general, Addie Ophelders, EBTF President and FIQ secretary general and Kim Jensen, EBT Director.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

17th December, Doha: Newly-crowned QubicaAMF World Cup champion, Caroline Lagrange of Canada made the Stage 1 finals in the last squad of the 9th Qatar International Open Bowling Championship on Thursday evening.

Having reached Doha a day earlier and her bowling bags missing, Caroline Lagrange could not take to the lanes for her qualifying rounds and had to sit it out. Since she only has one squad on Wednesday and four a day later, she was hoping the bag would arrive later that evening.

But as it turned out, the bag did not arrive and she had to have a new ball drilled for the first squad in the morning. As there was no entries for Squad 13, the organizers cancelled the squad and Lagrange settled for the 1.00pm Squad 14.

A good start with 223, 229 and 194 put her in a good position but a poor 162 and 169 followed spoilt her first attempt and ended with

only 1222. The Canadian then had another disasterous second attempt in Squad 15 with 1188.

So it came down to the final Squad 16 as a last ditch to make the finals. The world champion had a poor opening game of 178 but fortunately made up some ground with a superb 253. Another setback of 170 midway through the squad put her in the back foot again.

Determined to make the finals, Lagrange reeled home two decent games of 224 and 203 and was 68 pins over with the final game to go. She had to strike out from frame six onwards in order to make the cut and she fired one by one all the way home to the delight of his coach, Frank Buffa and his boyfriend, Mark Buffa.

Her 6-game scratch score of 1280 plus the 48 pins handicap allocated to a women gave her a total of 1328 to top the squad and crucially making the Stage 1 finals.

"It was frustrating to find your bag missing after a long flight and there was nothing you can do about it," said the 26-year-old graphic designer from Montreal, Caroline Lagrange.

"I had to get use to the new ball drilled here and it wasted two of my earlier squads. But I was determine to make the cut. I only had 68 pins over before the final game and I knew I had to have a massive game.

"Knowing I had to strike home, I took it one by one and kept reminding myself to stay calm. I'm happy to have made it," added the much relieved Canadian.

Meanwhile, Sweden's Robert Andersson only was only 17 pins over after four games and thought it was all over. But surprisingly the Swede turned in two superb games of 245 and 238 to end the squad with 1300 to squeeze in.

Both last minute qualifiers knocked out Aaron Kong of Malaysia and Yousif Falah of Bahrain who were in 37th and 38th positions with 1295 and 1292. Yousif, however made the cut through Squad 1 in which he shot 1257 on the first day.

Singapore's Lionel Lim came close to making the finals after he had 103 pins over before the final game but could only manage 190 to end with 1293 and missing the cut by 3 pins. Australia's George Frilingos,

who tied with the Malaysian with 1295 had a higher final game in his score to take the last spot.

In the subsequent desperado squad in which 44 bowlers paid 50 Euro each to take part, Qatar's Khalid Al-Doseri (230), Bahrain's Arif Mursel (226), Qatar's Salem Al-Marzouqi (224) and UAE's Sayed Ibrahim (223) squeezed into the Stage 1 finals.

In the earlier Squad 15, UAE's Naif Oqab cemented his third spot with an improved 1400 series to top the squad. Dominic Barrett of England finished second with 1331 but failed to improve his 11th position into the top 6.

2007 World Ranking Masters champion, Kimmo Lethonen of Finland (1327), Mathias Arup of Sweden (1326) and Tim Friedrichs of Germany were the only three who made it through this squad.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

17th December, Doha: The scores on the final day of qualifying soared through the roof of Qatar Bowling Center when ten keglers surpassed the 1,300-mark with Sweden's Martin Larsen rolling a record-breaking 1540 to take over the lead in the standings.

Ranked No. 6 in the European Bowling Tour rankings with 330, Martin Larsen's sizzling run in Squad 14 today got a few heads turning in amazement with the massive 6-game total. Larsen got off to a superb opening game of 288 and followed it up with 245 in the second.

Another superb 278 gave the Swede 211 pins over and he did not stop at that continuing to knock down 253 for 1311 with just five games. Larsen cruised home with a comfortable 229 to finish 150 pins ahead of his nearest rival.

"I changed everything including my pants," said the 30-year-old proshop operator fro Gothernburg jokingly. "No really, I drilled a new ball and gave it a go and it worked well. And by the time I got to the fourth game and knowing I had 211 pins over, I was totally relaxed.

"By the fifth game and 1311 scored, it was higher than my four previous attempts already. The ball was just great and I hope I can carry this form forward to the finals," added Larsen, whose best 6-game series was 1603 and was the Swedish Bowler of the Year in 2006 and 2007.

Jimmy Mortensen of Denmark, who is 18th in the EBT rankings, finished second in the squad with 1390 which was incidentally higher than Day 4 high series posted by Paul Moor. His success in making the finals will give him a chance of making the EBT Masters with some points scored.

Top women so far was another Dane, Britt Brondsted who rolled 1384 to finish third while EBT Ranked No. 1, Osku Palermaa took fourth spot with 1344 improving his previous 1338 by 6 pins. Norway's Mads Sandbekken finished fifth with 1341.

Five others who surpassed the 1,300-mark in this squad was England's Nicki Ainge (6th-1339), Norway's Tore Torgersen (7th-1325), Sweden's Thomas Larsen (8th-1321), defending champion Nina Flack (9th-1320) and Denmark's Paul Hutchinson (10th-1309).

Heading the top 6 into Stage 3 finals were Larsen, UAE's Hussain Al-Suwaidi (2nd-1421), Naif Oqab (3rd-1394), Jimmy Mortensen (4th-1390), Britt Brondsted (5th-1384) and Paul Moor (6th-1374).

Remy Ong of Singapore headed the next 6 with 1367 into Stage 2 finals, Shaker Al-Hassan (8th-1353), Patrick Healey (9th-1352), Mika Koivuniemi (10th-1349), Dominic Barrett and Stuart Williams (tie 11th-1347).

Osku Palermaa got relegated to 13th position and will lead the next 26 qualifiers right up to 38th positions into Stage 1 finals. Bahrain's Yousif Falah occupied the 38th spot with 1287 with two more squads remaining to play.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

16th December, Doha: The battle to win the European Bowling Tour ranking title heated up as leader, Finland's Osku Palermaa, England's Dominic Barrett and Paul Moor scrambled for top honours in the final EBT stop at the 9th Qatar International Open Bowling Championship.

The 9th Qatar Open, which is the final stop of this year's European Bowling Tour, will also provide Europeans the last chance to earn crucial ranking points to qualify for the EBT Masters early May 2010 in Vienna, Austria.

The top 16 men and top 16 women in the published EBT Rankings will make the cut for the Masters and depending on where they finish in the Qatar Open finals, the points earned starts at 100 downwards.

Apart from the chance of finishing top of the rankings to earn an extra 2,000 Euro for both the men and the women, qualifying for the EBT Masters would provide the qualifiers an opportunity to win the top prize of 20,000 Euro each for the men and the women.

Undeniably, earning ranking points and qualifying for the Masters is one thing, but to emerge as this year's Qatar Open also provides the participants a chance to pocket the top prize of 30,000 Euro, the highest prized EBT stop.

Total prize money for the Qatar Open is a whopping 120,000 Euro, which is why it has attracted so many star-studded players.

Heading the men's ranking is Osku Palermaa of Finland with 462 points, winner of last year's EBT rankings too. Dominic Barrett of England and champion of this year’s World Tenpin Masters, trailed in second with 402 and could topple the Finn if he can finish in the top 4 and Palermaa failing to make the Stage 3 finals.

Third is lefty, Paul Moor of England with 363 points and only a victory coupled with both Palermaa and Barrett failing to advance into the Stage 3 finals, would give him a chance of winning the EBT men's title.

PBA pro, Mika Koivuniemi of Finland is currently in 17th position in the rankings with 170 points and qualifying for the Qatar Open finals would guarantee him a spot in the EBT Masters. Jimmy Mortensen of Denmark is also here and he is 18th with 166 points.

Meanwhile at Qatar Bowling Center, everyone is talking about the lanes favouring the lefties after UAE's Naif Oqab, Shaker Al-Hassan and Singapore's Remy Ong occupied the top 3 spots. Then on Tuesday, Asia No. 1, Hussain Al-Suwaidi surprised many when he stormed into the lead with a sizzling 1421.

So left-handed or right-handed, the lanes are even for both types. At this afternoon's Squad 10, Osku Palermaa rolled a decent 1338 with his unique two-handed style, so the lanes are suitable for all types.

But at the subsequent Squad 11, Paul Moor scorched the lanes to knock down 1374 en-route to topping the squad which move the lefty up from seventh to third.

With Only Moor in the top 6 and assuring himself to advancing into the Stage 3 finals, it was now up to Palermaa and Barrett to improve their scores and join Moor into the Stage 3 finals too.

So lefties onw occupied the top 5 positions - Hussain, Naif, Moor, Remy Ong and Shaker with this year's Emir Cup champion, Patrick Healey of USA notching up 1352 in Squad 11 to take up sixth spot.

The lanky PBA pro, Mika Koivuniemi of Finland headed the next top 6 to advance into Stage 2 finals with 1349 ahead of Barrett, Stuart Williams, Palermaa, Sami Noor of Bahrain and Tina Hulsch of Germany.

Positions 13 to 38 to battle the first six games in the Stage 1 finals is headed by Kim Bolleby of Sweden and the cut off at 38th position going to Mohamed Al-Rajebah of Kuwait at 1267. Last year's cut off was 1295 held by Remy Ong.

Squad 13 has been cancelled to due no response which leaves three more squads for bowlers to scramble for places in the finals on Thursday.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

15th December, Doha: Asian Ranked No. 1, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE shone on Day 4 qualifying rounds of the 9th Qatar International Open Bowling Championship after taking over the overall lead in qualifying standings on Tuesday.

Asian Indoor Games two gold medalist, Hussain Al-Suwaidi posted a sizzling 1421 to haul himself up from 15th position overnight to the top of the leaderboard. World Tenpin Masters champion, Dominic Barrett of England had topped the opening Squad 7 of the day with 1347.

Barrett had lines of 265, 214, 187, 213, 265 and 203 in his first attempt and looked good to win the daily high series award. His compatriot, Stuart Williams trailed Barrett in second with 1399 followed by Germany's Tina Hulsch third with 1325.

But in the subsequent Squad 8, Hussain Al-Suwaidi stole the limelight after becoming the first bowler to surpass the 1,400-mark with a total of 1421 giving the Emirati the top spot in the overall standings.

Hussain, who leads the Asian Ranking standings, started off with 212 but blazed the lanes with lines of 248, 225, 244, 225 and 267 for the lead. Day 3 high series award winner, Remy Ong of Singapore improved his Day 3 score of 1349 to 1367 to finish second to Hussain.

Stuart Williams turned in another superb round with 1347 and had to settle for third in the squad as PBA bowler, Mika Koivuniemi of Finland shot 1330 in his first attempt to finish fourth.

Squad 7 leader, Dominic Barrett had a chance to better his 1347 but shot a low final game of 171 in same squad to end with 1320, two pins behind Sweden's Kim Bolleby, who took fifth spot with 1322.

Bahrain's Sami Noor took Squad 8 after knocking down 1337. Malaysia's Aaron Kong claimed second spot with 1295 followed by England's Nick Froggatt third with 1279.

But the Bahraini's superb showing put him in seventh overall missing the sixth position by 7 pins. Hussain topped the standings with his Squad 8 effort and dislodged his fellow countryman, Naif Oqab into second spot.

Remy Ong's improved 1367 allowed the Singaporean to retain third spot ahead of another Emirati, Shaker Al-Hassan fourth on 1353. Barrett and Williams made up the top 6 positions who will advance into the Stage 3 finals.

Meanwhile, Samho Korea Cup champion, Tim Mack of USA became the second bowler to shoot a perfect game during Squad 8 but only managed 1268 but the American PBA pro had shot 1317 in the earlier Squad 7 to take up 12th position.

Seven more squads are scheduled for the next two remaining days of qualifying - three on Wednesday and four on Thursday. A one-game desperado squad will be held after the last squad to give bowlers a final chance to make the Stage 1 finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

14th December, Doha: Bahrain Open champion, Remy Ong took advantage of the favourable conditions for left-handers to win the high series award and topped Day 3 qualifying rounds of the 9th Qatar International Open on Monday evening.

After capturing this year's Bahrain Open Masters title, the 31-year-old Remy Ong has had several good runs where he finished fourth in the Kaohsiung World Games singles, fifth at the PBAP Classic and second runnerup in the 2nd Anocl Open in Indonesia.

Ong narrowly missed the championship stage after he lost to Dominic Barrett of England, 439-466 in the Stage 5 semifinals of last year's 8th Qatar Open. Ong's first success in the European tour was winning the 2008 San Marino Open.

The team of 4 Singapore national bowlers had to return to the airport to claim their bowling ball bags when they went missing on arrival Monday morning.

But the setback did not deter Ong when he took to the lanes for the 9.00pm Squad 6. Ong started a cracking pace with a 264 opening game followed by 232 but dropped his pace with 188 at the halfway mark of hsi qualifying round.

Ong bounced back with 246 and 249 and despite suffering a low 170 in his final game, the left-hander totaled 1349 to end Day 3 as the top scorer and earning 200 Euro for his superb effort.

Paul Moor of England did well to finish second with 1336 while Ong's team-mate and newly-crowned Singapore National champion, Lee Yu-Wen impressed with 1298 to claim third spot in the same squad.

In the earlier squad, Germany's Patricia Luoto topped Squad 5 with 1314 with Paul Moor again settling for second with 1283. This year's Emir Cup champion, Patrick Healey of USA finished third with 1266.

Meanwhile, Asian Indoor Games triple gold medalist, Naif Oqab of UAE continued to lead the standings with 1394 posted in Squad 4 on Day 2. Naif's team-mate and Singapore Open champion, Shaker Al-Hassan, who topped Day 1 is second with 1353.

Remy Ong claimed third spot after winning Day 3's high series award with Paul Moor, Patricia Luoto and Qatar's Abdulla Haroon completing the top 6 who will advance directly into Stage 3 finals.

Mohammed Al-Zaidan of Kuwait headed positions 7 to 12 who would advance into Stage 3 finals automatically with 1300. Lee Yu-Wen of Singapore and another Kuwaiti, Khalid Al-Dubyyan finished eighth and ninth with 1298 and 1291 respectively.

Mansour Al-Awami of Qatar, who shot the tournament's first perfect game, occupied tenth spot with 1290 followed by ABF Tour TOC champion, Andrew Frawley of Australia and Denmark's Thomas Larsen making up the next top 6.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.

13th December, Doha: Southpaw and Asian Indoor Games gold medalist, Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE topped squads 1-2 of the 9th Qatar International Open underway at Qatar International Bowling Center while compatriot, Naif Oqab topped Squad 4.

Singapore Open champion, Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE grabbed the early lead as 56 competitors took to the lanes in the opening Squad 1 on Saturday. The 40-year-old, who also won this year's ABF Tour Hong Kong leg, shot 253, 257, 205, 174, 202 and 202 for a total of 1295.

ABF Tour TOC champion, Andrew Frawley of Australia finished second with 1285 as Thomas Larsen of Sweden took third spot with 1280. But Shaker set the lanes ablaze with another scintilating run in Squad 2 for a 6-game total of 1353.

Qatar's Abdulla Haroon was the other bowler to surpass the 1,300-mark with 1308 to take up second spot while 2008 World Men's Championship Masters silver medalist, Jesper Agerbo od Denmark finished third in the same squad with 1274.

Asian Indoor Games triple gold medalist, Naif Oqab of UAE, another left-hander, bettered his compatriot Shaker's score to 1394 in Squad 4 yesterday to earn 200 Euro as Day 2 highest series award while Shaker won the Day 1 highest series.

Naif, who finished fifth in Squad 2 a day earlier, downed 255, 220, 237, 227, 279 and 176 to top Squads 3 and 4 and to advance into Stage 1 finals as leader. However, if both Naif's and Shaker's scores are good enough for the top 6 in the overall standings, the duo could get a bye in both the Stage 1 and 2 finals directly into Stage 3 finals.

Thomas Larsen and Jesper Agerbo currently occupy the top 2 positions in the overall standings with Kuwait's Mohamed Al-Rejebah third with his best score of 1267 bowled in Squad 2.

A total of 16 squads are schedule for qualifying in which the top 3 qualifiers from the first two days (4 squads) automatically earn entry into Stage 1 finals unless their scores are good enough for the top 12 positions.

Positions 1 to 6 will earn direct entry into the Stage 3 finals while positions 7 to 12 will advance directly into Stage 2 finals. Positions 13 to 38 (26 qualifiers) will be joined by the six qualifiers from the first two days into the Stage 1 finals.

In addtion, the remaining four qualifiers will be from the one-game desperado squad making up a total of 36 qualifiers for Stage 1 finals. The top 18 finishers in Stage 1 finals will be joined by the 6 qualifiers from positions 7 to 12 for Stage 2 finals (24).

The top 10 finishers from the Stage 2 finals will be joined by positions 1 to 6 from the overall qualifying standings for Stage 3 finals (16). The top 8 will advance into Stage 4 finals in which the top 5 will proceed into the knockout stage.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.