16th October, Manila: Filipina, Liza Clutario brought home a classic win after she defeated fellow-countrymen and challenger, Joonee Gatchalian, 250-234 in the stepladder finals at Pearl Bowling Center.

Clutario, the 2003 World Championship Trios Gold medalist and Masters Silver medalist, topped the 8-game finals thanks to two massive games. The champion posted 280 in the third game and then scored the tournament's second perfect game in her sixth game but was still trailing pace-setter, Joonee Gatchalian by 78 pins going into the final game.

The pressure must have gotten onto the leader as he faulted with a poor 150 in the final game while Clutario ended the finals with a 257 to finish top-seed for the stepladder finals.

Gatchalian settled for second despite knocking out Classified division champion and third-seed, Tang Joh Six of Malaysia and winner of the first match, Jazreel Tan of Singapore, 246-198-235. Tang remained third while Tan moved up one notch to fourth.

In the first match amongst Youth division champion and fourth-seed, Markwin Tee, fifth-seed, Alice Tay and Jzareel Tan, it was Tan who emerged victorious taking the match with 233 against Markwin's 216 and Tay's 221.

The strong team of Malaysians ended the day empty handed with none of them making the stepladder finals. Daniel Lim started the finals with a superb 290 but could not sustain the pace while Lai Kin Ngoh, who took the lead briefly after the second game also fizzled out.

Clutario won 150,000 pesos (approx. US$2,690) with Gatchalian taking home 80,000 pesos (US$1,435) and Tang 40,000 pesos. The top 24, who qualified from the three blocks of 8 games over the past three days, contested the 8-game finals today to determine the top 6 making the cut for the stepladder finals.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.

15th October, Manila: Filipino youth, Markwin Tee snatched the 8th PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic Youth title in the last game of finals at Pearl Bowling Center late Saturday evening with Chinese Taipei's Ernie Cheng in second and Apple Posadas third.

Tee, who started poorly at the start of the 8-game finals, recovered slightly to trailed Chinese Taipei's Ernie Cheng by 78 pins at the halfway mark. Cheng, who won the the Singapore Open youth masters crown, set a cracking pace with line of 180, 223, 231 and 256 to lead the field of 14 finalists.

The champion then switched on top gear to bring home two superb games of 242 and 240 to narrow the gap by 9 pins going into the last game. Cheng scored 200 and could not fend off the challenge mounted by Tee, who brought home a 225 to snatch the victory by 16 pins on 1688 against Cheng's 1672.

Cheng settled for second while ABF Tour Philippines leg champion, Apple Posadas took third spot with a total of 1641. Team-Prima's JC Tupaz finished fourth with 1612 ahead of Vietnam's Nguyen Thanh Pho in fifth with 1611.

Markwin Tee won 20,000 pesos for capturing the title with Cheng taking home 10,000 pesos and Posadas 8,000. The Open division will contest their semifinals over 8 games on Sunday with the top 6 proceeding to the stepladder finals.

Photos courtesy of TND Group.

15th October, Manila: Open and Classified division pole sitter, Tang Joh Six of Malaysia snatched victory in the Classified division after defeating Filipina, Jojo Canare over two-game stepladder finals this afternoon.

Tang, from Sarawak, East Malaysia, snatched the victory by 2 pins when she won the sudden-death decider, 215-213. The 23-year-old lost the first match, 162-168 to challenger, Jojo Canare before bouncing back to edge her opponent in a thrilling finale.

Canare almost went all the way to claim the title but found the top-seed too strong despite knocking out second-seed, Nestor Ang of Chinese Taipei and third-seed, Nico Valderama of TBAM-Prima, 203-202-166.

The runner-up, who was seeded fourth in the semifinals, also took the first match by defeating fifth-seed, Liza Clutario of PBAP-Bowlmart and Cheche Abrantes of TBAM-Prima, 238-177-195.

Vietnam's Nguyen Thanh Pho mset a cracking pace in the earlier semifinals and led for the first five games before loosing the lead to Nico Valderama and faded away to finish seventh. But Tang's last two games allowed her to snatch top-seed for the stepladder finals with a total of 1749.

The Youth division will contest the finals later this evening while the Open division will bowl their semifinals on Sunday.

Photos by B.C. Cheah, MTBC.

14th October, Manila: The third day of the 8th PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic preliminary rounds saw 13 men and 11 women making the cut for Saturday's semifinals with Malaysia's Tang Joh Six maintaining pole position.

With Tang easing off to a 27 pins cushion at the top of the leaderboard with 5227, her fellow-countrymen, Adrian Ang shot the tournament's first perfect game en-route to posting the highest series of the day with 1857. Ang was in scintilating form knocking down lines of 200, 222, 235, 269, 205, 213, 300 and 213 to move up to third on 5184.

2003 AMF World Cup champion, CJ Suarez was equally impressive to finish second with a 24-game total of 5200, just 27 pins adrift in second and 43 pins ahead of Ang. Malaysian bowlers took 10 out of the 24 semifinal spots with Asian ranked No. 1, Alex Liew in fourth on a total of 5137.

Ben Heng moved up from 14th in the second block to fifth with a superb 1816 and a total of 5122 ahead of three women led by Filipina, Liza Del Rosario followed by Singapore's Alice Tay and Jennifer Tan from sixth to eighth positions respectively.

Aaron Kong, Choy Poh Lai and Lai Kin Ngoh occupied the next three spots from ninth to 11th ahead of two Filipinos, Biboy Rivera in 12th and Joonee Gatchalian in 14th sandwiching another Malaysian, Daniel Lim in 13th.

All in all, Malaysia will have 10 semifinalists, Philippines 8, Singapore 5 and one surviving Taiwanese. There are 15 right-handed hook ball bowlers, 3 spinners and 6 left-handers. The top 24 contested 24 games divided into three 8-game blocks over short, medium and long-oil conditions to reach the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Tang Joh Six also led the Classified division ahead of Liza Del Rosario in second and newcomer, LY Liet of Vietnam third. In the Youth division, Markwin Tee retained the lead he took yesterday with Chinese Taipei's Ernie Cheng in second and JC Tupaz of the Philippines in third position.

The Classified division bowlers will bowl another 8 games on Saturday morning and Youth division in the afternoon, from scratch at the end of which the top 6 will proceed to the stepladder finals. The Open division semifinals will take place on Sunday.

Photos by B.C. Cheah, MTBC.

13th October, Manila: Lady bowlers outshone the men in the second block of the 8th PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic on day 2 as Malaysia's Tang Joh Six and Filipina, Liza Del Rosario took the first two positions.

2003 PBAP Champion, Tang Joh Six was in her element as she posted another superb 1770 in the second block of 8 games to give her a total of 3552 to lead the pack of 68 bowlers. Newly-crowned ABF Tour Singapore leg champion, Liza Del Rosario posted the highest 8-game series of the day with a scintilating 1918 to moved up from 23rd in the first block to trailed Tang by just 21 pins.

Rosario blazed the lanes with lines of 176, 226, 218, 279, 249, 238, 255 and 213 to end the day with a total 16-game total of 3531. Current Asian ranked No. 1, Alex Liew of Malaysia dropped one spot to third with a total of 3530, just one pin adrift.

Local bowlers faired better with 2003 World Cup champion, CJ Suarez,

Joonee Gatchalian, Biboy Rivera and Markwin Tee moving up the leaderboard in fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

Singapore's best performer of the day was Jennifer Tan, who scored 1729 for a total of 3410 to also improve from 10th to sixth position. Malaysia's Aaron Kong rounded up the top 10 with 3334.

Tang Joh Six, Liza Del Rosario and Jojo Canare also finished in the top three positions of the Classified division with totals of 3424, 3403 and 3174 respectively while in the Youth division, Filipino, Markwin Tee took over the lead with 3347.

Singapore Open Youth Boys champion, Ernie Cheng finished second with 3247 ahead of JC Tupaz in third with 3212. FIrst block leader, Apple Posadas could not repeat the form she showed yesterday and dropped to fourth with 3157.

The bowlers will complete their preliminary rounds Friday with a final 8-games block. The top 24 in the Open and Classified divisions will proceed to the semifinals on Saturday for another 8 games starting from scratch with the top 6 making the cut for the stepladder finals.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.

12th October, Manila: Malaysian bowlers dominated the first block of the 8th PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic underway at Pearl Bowling Center as Daniel Lim and Alex Liew finished 1-2 overall on short-oil condition.

Before the start of Squad C Wednesday evening, Singapore Open runner-up, Alice Tay of Singapore was leading the overall standings after Squad A and B completed their first block of 8 games with a score of 1717.

But when the strong contingent of Malaysian bowlers completed their first block, it was Daniel Lim who topped the field with a superb 1833. Lim scorched the lanes with lines of 248, 245, 227, 267, 169, 243 and 232 to finish 43 pins ahead of current Asian ranked No. 1, Alex Liew on a score of 1790.

2003 PBAP Classic champion, Tang Joh Six of Malaysia, who also topped the Classified division, took advantage of the 8 pins handicap, to total 1782 for third spot and the top female in the overall standings.

ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion, Lai Kin Ngoh also did well to finish fourth ahead of early leader, Alice Tay settled in fifth. Southpaw, Ben Heng of Malaysia took up sixth with 1700 followed by another Malaysian, Aaron Kong in seventh with 1697.

Evelyn Chan (1696) of Singapore, Benshir Layoso (1691) of the Philippines and ABF Tour Thailand leg champion, Jennifer Tan (1681) rounded up the top 10 in a field of 68 bowlers.

ABF Tour Philippines leg champion, Apple Posadas of the Philippines headed the youth division with 1639 followed by Markwin Tee in second with 1629. Posadas also finished second in the Classified division behind Tang Joh Six of Malaysia.

The bowlers will contest their second block of 8 games on medium-oil conditions specially put on for this championship and the final 8-game block on long-oil condition on Friday. The top 24 at the end of the three blocks will make the cut for the semifinals on Saturday.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.