Challenging lane conditions
18th March, Kuwait: Singapore national bowlers competiting at the 8th Kuwait Open 2011 are finding the lane conditions challenging as they got off to an unexpected slow start in the opening block of Squad C. Singapore national bowlers took to the lanes on the last squad of the first day of qualifying rounds at 9.00pm as they needed a longer rest especially after arriving at 3.00am on Friday on more than seven hours on the flight from Singapore to Kuwait.
Jason Yeong-Nathan was the nation's best performer when he ended the block in ninth on a 6-game total 1246 with lines of 195, 180, 185, 219, 243 and 193. Commonwealth Championship Doubles gold medalist, Shayna Ng bowling with a handicap of 5 pins downed 1245 to finish one spot behind Yeong-Nathan.
Newly-crowned Commonwealth Championship Masters gold medalist, Remy Ong was slow to get into his strides finishing in 11th with 1235 while debutant, Geraldine Ng managed only 1133 from her 6-game block.
Hong Kong's Michael Tsang topped Squad C with 1330 ahead of newly-crowned ABF Tour TOC champion and three-time Asia No. 1, Hussain Al Suwaidi of UAE second with 1315 and another Hong Kong national bowler, Wu Siu Hong third with 1302.Squad A leader, Martin Larsen, who shot the tournament's first 300, topped the overall standings with 1430 followed by Squad D leader, Sayed Ibrahim of UAE and Stuart Williams of England second and third on 1404 and 1385.
Yeong-Nathan ended up in 28th overall, Shayna 29th, Ong 33rd and Geraldine 59th positions. Singapore bowlers have two more blocks of 6 games each to make improvements and finish inside the top 34 who will advance into the next round.
The top 7 plus highest ranked Kuwaiti from the standings would advance into the Round 5 finals. Positions 9 to 14 would advance into Round 4 finals while positions 15 to 22 will move into Round 3 finals.
Bowlers who finish from positions 23 to 34 plus four highest Kuwaiti qualifiers will have to first battle in Round 2 finals to proceed to the next round joined by the above seeded qualifiers.
The Round 2 to 4 finals take place on Monday, March 22 and the Round 5 on Tuesday, March 23. The top 5 at the end of the Round 5 finals will advance into the stepladder finals to determine the champion.
Detailed scores: Block 1 Combined | Block 1 Squad C | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.