Maiden victory for youngsters

29th May, Singapore: Loke Chor of National Service Resorts and Country Club and Enseilia Goh of Singapore Sports School took their maiden victory when they triumphed in the Boy's and Girl's Under-16 Masters finals of the 41st Singapore International Open. Keith Saw Hui Xun open accounts with a 217 opening game, 8 pins ahead of Jonathan Ng. But it was Brandon Lau's 205 and 247 in his first two games that saw the youngster surging into the lead.

Brandon kept a hot pace and was 19 pins ahead of Shaun at the halfway mark with Loke Chor lurking closing behind the duo. As Jonathan moved to the front, Loke was 32 pins adrift after the fifth game.

Loke then stepped into top gear with 202, 212 and 203 in his last three game to end the 8-game finals with 1576 and 33 pins ahead of Howard Saw, who finished second with 1543. Pace-setter, Shaun Ng settled for third with 1528.   The 15-year-old Loke, who has been bowling since he was 11, also won this year's Novice Bowling secondary school division boys title but the win to day is much sweeter to the youngster. In the Girl's Under-16 division, Enseilia Goh also clinched her first-ever victory when she amassed a total of 1532. The 14-year-old Singapore Sports School student took over the lead after the fourth game and went on to cruise to an comfortable 50 pins victory.

Lynette Ho, who had set a cracking pace from the start of the 8-game finals, settled for second with 1482 while Calista Tan stormed home to snatch third place from another pace-setter, Ilma Nurjannah with a total of 1466.

"I would have been happy with a podium finish but to win is even more fantastic," said Enseilia after receiving the champion's trophy from Mr B.C. Cheah, Vice President of MTBC and Director of Malaysian National squad.   "My best performance was finishing 24 pins behind the third-placed in my previous finals and I'm so pleased with the results. I need to train more before I can compete in other bigger tournaments like next week's 2nd Under-18 Singapore Sports Schools meet.

Meanwhile, C.S. Ng won the Men's Graded B Masters title with a total of 1621 followed by Tan Hock Beng and Johnny Lee second and third with 1617 and 1614 respectively. The Women's Graded B division crown went to youngster, Ong Ying Xin with a total of 1469.

Yeo Ching Yee settled for second with 1422 as Valerie Chan and Julie Png tied for third place with a total of 1411. There will be seven qualifying squads left today and if any Men's Open bowlers who have not made the finals will have a final chance to join the finalists in the one-game Desperado Squad after the last squad.     Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.