8th August, Aalborg: It all came down to the final ball of the tenth frame for the Gold medal when Chinese Taipei's anchorwomen, Chou Miao-Lin had to make a spare in the final shot to clinch the World Championship Trios title.

The Singaporeans had hit a new World Championship record with 3806 and were quite confident that would bring the gold, but fickle fate had completely differing ideas. After game five the storyline was that if Chinese Taipei could hit 578 in the final game, the gold would be theirs.

Throughout that final game they held the pace but then fell slightly back as the finish line came in sight. A mixed result in the tenth frame left anchor Miao-Lin Chou needing just to spare to clinch the Gold - but near disaster. Her first ball left the 7-9-10. A huge gasp but then the 7-pin fell. Miao-Lin was shaking like a leaf and said afterwards that her hands turned freezing cold. But she set off the spinning ball on the right course and it split the pins for the spare and all she then had to do was just hit the pins.

There was also a tussle for bronze as Denmark's 3751, set in the previous squad, came under attack from the Chinese Taipei second team. As previously scripted, it all came down to the tenth frame but Dame Fortune favored the Danes as the Taipeirs failed to score enough in those final frames and fell short of the bronze medal by eleven pins.

This was the first Women's World Championship medal since their bronze in the trios in Reno, Nevada, 1995 and is the first gold for Chinese Taipei women.

They are certainly enjoying their stay in Denmark. "We spend our time singing, sleeping and eating," joked Miao-Lin. "We also like the weather, despite it raining almost continually since we arrived. But we have to cook our own food as that is very expensive here."

The team agreed that they were surprised to beat many of the world's best hook bowlers and are very pleased that their teammate, Wang Yu-Ling is leading the All Events, the total scores of all twelve games bowled to date. Her 219 average gives her a 36-pin lead over Korea's Jin-A Choi with Kamilla Kjeldsen of Denmark a couple of pins further back in third place.

The top 16 players will contest the Masters after a further twelve games, six in five-person team and six in singles. Tuesday will see the five-person teams take to the lanes of the Lovvang Bowl at 09:00 local time.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

8th August, Aalborg: Three teams came close in Squad 1 to beating current leader, Singapore but dropped the chance with the Danish trio of Simonsen, Jensen and Rasmussen topping the the squad and zooming into second spot.

In the earlier squad, Alice Tay, Jennifer Tan and Valerie Teo set a new World Championship record of 3806, exceeding the previous 3797 by nine pins, and that was the number the three teams of China, Chinese Taipei and Denmark were determined to beat.

Both China and Chinese Taipei got off to a fantastic start and were playing nip and tuck throughout the first two games. But, as often, both teams using the 'spinner' style, tightened up in the last game, China even dropping to 531 following a 709, whilst Taipei hit 614, but it was the Danish trio who eventually led the squad and zoomed into second place overall, 55 pins behind Singapore.

The final squad still has some superstars in the line-ups, so a lot of players have their fingers crossed, especially the Singaporeans. The American trio

of Shannon Pluhowsky, Diandra Asbaty and Lynda Barnes will be especially dangerous, but they have to average 685 to get to the gold.

The Danish girls were really surprised to have bowled so well today. Games of 674, 623 and 608 saw them into second place overall. Asked if they had been watching the scores set by China and Chinese Taipei, the replied that they had been entirely focusing on their own game and not paying attention on what was going on with the other lanes.

"Anyway, we were just having fun," said Anje Ginge Jensen. "We had tremendous support from the crowd on the concourse and just bowled the best that we could."

Maybe that best will be good enough for a medal. The 22 teams on the final squad will determine that fate.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

8th August, Aalborg: As Singapore completed their Trios second block of 3 games in Squad 3 of the Women's World Championship, they can only sit and bite their fingernails and hope for the best.

Singapore Team 1 of Alice Tay, Valerie Teo and Jennifer Tan completed their six-game score in today's three games on the long oil pattern, and have a healthy total of 3806 to lead Squad 3 by a whopping 225 pins ahead of the Swedes in second and the strong finishing Koreans in third.

This morning's action featured team games of 648, 543 and 663, nearly 100 less than their first three games last night with 1952. So now they have to sit and bite their fingernails whilst the other 48 teams take to the lanes. "I am confident we will be in the medals," said team manager Thomas Fox, "but we don't know yet what color that will be. We will keep our fingers crossed for the gold."

If main challengers can equal their scoring pace from yesterday, doubling their current 1924 would bring them to 3848, so the gate is still wide open for the premier place on the podium this evening.

"It was tough today," commented Singapore youngster Valerie Teo, a 20-year-old National University medical student. "We struggled in the second game, on lanes 1 and 2, but we got as many pins as we could. You run into something like this once in a while, when you just figure things out. But we gave it our best shot when we moved to lanes 23 and 24 so we feel much happier now."

Spinners Tan and Tay had the best six-game series, 1361 and 1246 respectively. Teo, the hook bowler, hit 1199.

"This was a good team effort," added Thomas Fox. "I've got to thank the other team members who were sitting behind the lanes, screaming their heads off, that certainly eased the tension. I am so pleased that we made the right decisions, the correct adjustments and played the right lines. Now we stand, wait and hope."

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

7th August, Aalborg: The Singapore trio of Alice Tay, Jennifer Tan and Valerie Teo are the number one team at the conclusion of the short oil stint of the Women's Trios at the end of Squad 3 and Day 3 of the competition.

Thanks to a great 725 three-game series by Tay, the Singaporeans overtook the high target of 1924 set by Chinese Taipei earlier in the day and now lead by 28 pins going into the long oil pattern on Monday 8.

Tan and Teo backed up Tay with 618 and 609 for a 3 games lines of 665, 685 and 602. The final game was played on lanes 5 and 6, reputed to be a difficult pair. "I'll take a 602 on that pair anytime," commented coach Pat Henry. "The girls made some great shots and I'm really proud of them."

Perhaps one great contributing factor to the success of the team was that they came to Denmark in May to compete in the Brunswick Aalborg International, one of Europe's prestigious singles ranking events. Although they didn't cash high in that event, they gained valuable experience of the conditions in this bowling center and life in Denmark as a whole.

"We have never doubted our ability to be amongst the leaders in this event," said assistant coach, Mervyn Foo. "We came prepared, learnt the cheapest places to eat and the supermarkets with the best prices. That trip was worth every cent."

The four leading teams are now Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Belgium and Team USA, so competition will be fierce when they take to the lanes for the second shift on Monday.

Now that all players have completed their first nine games, six on the long pattern, three on the short, the leaders in the All Events, the total score over all individual games, are Wang Yu-Ling of Chinese Taipei (2025), Kamilla Kjeldsen of Denmark (1964) and Lai Kin Ngoh of Malaysia (1943). The top nine girls at this time all represent different nations.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

7th August, Aalborg: Spinners took control in Squad 2 of the Trios event in the Women's World Championship when Chinese Taipei's Wang Yu-Ling, Chou Miao-Lin and Huang Chiung-Yao topped the table and took over the overall lead.

Maybe it is a bit cruel to say that the Chinese Taipei number one trios team started with a flurry of strikes this morning, then fell away to a whimper. Nevertheless, we saw the same pattern emerging from the second Chinese Taipei trios team this afternoon in the second squad, opening with 678, falling back with 567 but this time the trio rallied in the third game to come down the final straight with a 679 for a 1924 over the first of the two three-game series, this on short oil, tomorrow the long pattern.

All three women used the 'spinner' style, and eleven-pound bowling balls with the thumb and finger holes staying at the top as it traverses the lane.

Wang Yu-Ling was the star of the show, hitting the highest women's game to date with a 288 and finished with a 695 series, also the topping the three-game score.

That was nearly equalled by Belgium's Christine van Boom, bowling well for a 689, and going a long way in helping her team take second place on this squad. Her team-mates were Vicky Van de Craen (589) and Kirsten Horemans (581).

The current standings after two of today's three squads show Chinese Taipei way out in front with a 65 pin buffer over Belgium. Squad 1 leader and Team USA's Stefanie Nation, Shanon O'Keefe and Lisa Noor was relegated to third.

Squad 3 will commence after the break which will complete the first block of 3 games over short oil to end today's competition.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

7th August, Aalborg: Again it was Team USA of Stefanie Nation, Lisa Noor and Shannon O'Keefe that grabbed the lead in Squad 1 of the Trios event in the Women's World Championship on Day 3 at Lovvang Bowling Center.

After early pacesetting by the trio from Chinese Taipei in the opening squad of the Trios event, it became a tussle between the United States and Denmark for the honor of posting the top score on the leader board. That ultimately came down to the tenth frame of the leader board and the six-game series of 1848 from the Americans saw them once again the leading openers, this time by the narrow margin of two pins over the home team.

Home team of Rikke Holm Rasmussen, Anja Ginge Jensen and Rikke Simonsen settled for second with 1846 while Chinese Taipei's Wang Ya-Ting, Lin I-Fen and Tasi Hsin-Yi fizzled out to third with 1827.

The high individual series, though, went to Iliana Lomeli Lemus of Mexico, posting 694 with a high game of 254. Individual American scores were Shannon O'Keefe 577; Stefanie Nation 669 and Lisa Noor 602.

Two of the three Danish girls were well over 600, Anja Ginge Jensen had 679; Rikke Holm Rasmussen 603, but Rikke Simonsen trailed with 564.

Two more squads will take to the lanes today at 12:30 and 16:00 local time. The final block of three games, on the long oil pattern, will take place tomorrow, Monday, with the medal presentation ceremony immediately following the end of the squad.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

6th August, Aalborg: The German duo of Martina Beckel and Tanya Petty clinched the Doubles Gold medal by surpassing the mark set by Team USA in Squad 1 with a high game series in the final game of Squad 5 with Denmark taking the Silver and USA the Bronze medal.

Come the fifth game and there were three teams in with a chance of ousting Team USA from the medals - Germany, Denmark and Venezuela and the excitement got to fever pitch as those teams came down the final straight, battling for every strike and every spare.

Martina Beckel from Frankfurt and Tanya Petty, a German currently residing in Vienna, Austria were sitting pretty, just needing to break 400 over the last game and they did that easily, rolling their highest team game of their series, 479. Both bowled superbly, Beckel scoring 1330 and Petty 1312.

But it was Denmark's Britt Brondsted and Kamilla Kjeldsen that thrilled the crowd, a packed center concourse willing each ball for the maximum score.

They had to beat the Team USA score of 2578 to demote them into the bronze medal position and a 190 from Brondsted and 207 by Kjeldsen saw them achieve their target, surpassing the Americans by the narrow margin of twelve points and maybe disappointment for the Americans at only a bronze medal.

Much disappointment for the Malaysian pairing of Lai Kin Ngoh and Choy Poh Lai, slipping into fourth place, just 19 points out of the medals. Defending champions from the 2003 World Championships in Malaysia, Zara Glover and Kirsten Penny, never got into top gear and placed eighth this time. Glover, who won three gold and one silver medals in Malaysia, hit just 1265 and partner Penny contributed 1221.

The ladies' individual high game was set at a new high today with Denmark's Kamilla Kjeldsen bowling 280 in the fifth game of her series.

The German girls are, of course, ecstatic. "The lanes were great for left-handed bowlers and I loved the condition," commented Beckel. "I thought there was more conditioner on the lanes than in the practice sessions, but that didn't really worry me. We were both a little nervous at the start but soon settled down when we saw that we were scoring well. We saw many mistakes by the leading teams before we bowled, so knew that if we could stay clean we would be in with a chance."

"We really concentrated on the job in hand, especially during the last game when we knew the target we had to hit," added Petty. "We were lucky in that neither of us had to change bowling balls and the line for both of us changed little across the six pairs of lanes. It is a wonderful feeling to have that gold medal."

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

6th August, Aalborg: No serious challenge came from the 22 teams in Squad 4, the English duo of Donna Adams and Jo Harries leading the troops with a 206 average, two points short of that currently in bronze medal position at the Women's World Championship on Day 2.

However, there was some good individual scoring, topped by Adams with 1345, a 224 average. The high game on this squad was 257 by Team USA rookie Shannon O'Keefe, a flash of glory as her total six-game series was just 1091.

Second highest team was Filipinas Jojo Canare and Irene Garcia Benitez, 43 pins aback of the English pair. Both English girls have experienced the long/short oil conditions previously, competing in the Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling Championships earlier this year in Cyprus.

"I was pleased to be able to use the same balls all through the squad," explained a happy Donna Adams. "The experience from Cyprus really helped me a lot." Jo Harries wasn't quite able to reproduce the top form she

has displayed in many international tournaments, recently losing to none other than American PBA player Brian Voss in the Barcelona Open.

"I was fishing a lot," she commented, "especially with finding the right position for my feet. The line of the ball was good, but I had a problem getting comfortable on the approach. "It is strange using an inside line on the long oil pattern," Harries continued, "as that is a complete turnaround to the norm."

Just one squad left before the final three placings for gold, silver and bronze medals, all being presented in the award ceremony due to take place at about 18:00 hours, local time.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

5th August, Aalborg: A pair of 269s, the highest games of the ladies' doubles so far, brought the Malaysian pairing of Lai Kin Ngoh and Choy Poh Lai back to the top of the squad leader board and second to Team USA in the overall standings in the Women's World Championship.

Shannon Pluhowsky and Lynda Barnes of the United States are the nightwatchwomen, hoping to be among the medals after the final two squads of doubles on Saturday morning and afternoon.

Lai's final two games of 269s gave her a total pinfall over the six games of 1344, the second highest individual series so far. She started with 212 and 215, had a couple of sub-200 games with 183 and 196, then finished with that brace of 269s.

"I just kept trying and then started to carry the pins in the last two games," said Lai. "I was disappointed, of course, to leave a 7-pin in the ninth frame of the last game. If I could have struck out it would have given me my second career sanctioned perfect game. I bowled my first in the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998."

"Unlike Lai, I was not able to get the pin carry," said Choy, who finished 129 pins aback of Lai. "I kept leaving so many single pins, despite changing my bowling balls so many times. I can't blame the lanes, the condition was very good and I have a lot of experience of bowling on the long oil pattern."

The Malaysian pair demoted Sweden's hopefuls into third place overnight, then it is Asians again with Chinese Taipei and Australia slotting into fourth and fifth.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

5th August, Aalborg: The chance of a new World Championship ladies' doubles record went awry for the Swedish pairing of Eva Jonsson and Anna Maatson-Bard in the sixth and final game in Friday's second squad of the Women's World Championship.

Jonsson finished her game with a fine 266 and Maatson-Baard had 170 in the seventh frame and was working on a double, so had to hit 248 to set a new high. Unfortunately, a baby split (3-10) with the first ball of the tenth frame sealed the issue and fame and glory was not to be. Nevertheless, Sweden now sits in second place overall, 77 pins down on the score set by the Americans on the opening squad.

Both Swedes come from Malmo and play in the same club. Jonsson said, "I knew that we had a chance of breaking the single game record, but Anna didn't. I was comfortable playing on the long oil condition, having played in the World Ranking Masters in Florida a few months ago, but Anna is playing this condition for the first time."

The girls had a low start, just 359, and only dropped below 400 in the fifth game, backing to 373 on lanes 15-16. "We hope we're not the top Swedish pairing," added Maatson-Bard.

Korea, too, had their chances on this squad. Choi Jin-A, the lefthander with a very unique delivery, finished with a 226 average and the topped the ladies' overall score so far for the day, 1354, but partner Kim Soo-Kyung, the recent World Games champion, couldn't match the pace and coasted in with 1102.

Twenty teams will take on to the lanes after another half-an-hour break which will conclude the first day's competition. Squads 4 and 5 will play tomorrow which will decide the medal winners.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

5th August, Aalborg: Team USA's dynamic duo of Shannon Pluhowsky, the reigning AMF Bowling World Cup champion, and Lynda Barnes, set the pace by hitting 2578 to lead the opening squad of the ladies' doubles of the Women's World Championship underway at Lovvang Bowling Center.

Pluhowsky, Lincoln, Nebraska topped the individual scores with 1308 and Barnes, Flower Mound, Texas, backed up with 1270, bowled on the long oil pattern, set to 43 feet.

"It's great to be back as an amateur," said Barnes, who relinquished her ladies' pro tour status in 2001 and is bowling her first WTBA event since that time. "The pro tour was individual, here we have a good team of girls who all like each other."

Comparing World Cup competition with team events, Pluhowsky remarked, "This is a lot more fun and more sport. As the game progressed today we just looked at the numbers. It was a learning squad for us, both for the lane condition and for the system. It was a good start and maybe we have a chance of a medal. We will have to wait and see."

The 'spinners' from Chinese Taipei gave the Americans a run for their money, but dropped away over the final hurdles, finishing in second place for the time being with 2492. Third spot went to Korea's Gang Hye-Eun and Hwang Sun-Ok with a total of 2450.

Squad 2 will commence after the lane maintenance in about half-an-hour's time with Squad 3 at the end of today's competition. Squads 4 and 5 will be contested tomorrow.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.

4th August, Aalborg: As can only be expected by anyone who has had experience of the organization at the Lovvang Bowl, especially that under the expertise of Kim Thorsgaard Jensen, a truly enjoyable opening ceremony went like proverbial clockwork.

A colorfull march in by the 40 teams opened the proceedings, followed by a short but warm welcome to Denmark and to Aalborg in particular, stressing how proud the local people are to be able to host such a prestigious World Championships. "Many thanks for the 11,500 emails I've received during the organizations of this event," he said, jokingly adding, "please don't send me any during the next two weeks."

Danish Bowling Federation President , Henrik Schartau, endorsed Jensen's remarks and promised the competitors and coaches a truly memorable event. Then a musical interlude featured the attractive Marie Juul Sorensen, performing the lyrical 'I believe I can fly', dedicated to the Olympic quest for the sport of tenpin bowling.

WTBA President, Heikki Sarso, also stated how proud he is to have the World Championships in Europe for the first time since 1987, adding his best wishes to the competitors. The players' and officials' oaths were taken by Mai Ginge Jensen, a Danish competitor, and referee Svend Erik Larsen respectively.

Last, but certainly not least, Alderman of Schools and Culture in Aaalborg, Nils Bell, officially opened the Championships. He, too, expressed the pleasure of the citizens of Aalborg in having competitors from 40 nations in the city.

The playing of the Danish national anthem and the march out of the teams brought the proceedings to a close, nicely timed at 40 minutes, each one of them a pleasure to experience.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.