Topseed Singaporean hands title to Korean

Topseed Singaporean hands title to Korean

8th March, Tokyo: Topseed, Cherie Tan of Singapore handed the DHC Cup Girls International Bowling Championship title to Korean, Jeon Eun-Hee after she lost the tie-breaker in the title match when both tied at 179.  Eighth-seed, Jeon Eun-Hee of Korea, clinched the DHC Cup Girls International Bowling Championship crown in a nerve-wrecking tie breaker to defeat topseed, CHerie Tan of SIngapore.

Jeon Eun-Hee steamrolled past her opponents after winning her first shootout match against fifth seed, Missy Bellinder (USA-232), sixth-seed Sharon Koh (MAS-167) and seventh-seed Mayumi Yoshida (JPBA-201) with 239.

One-by-one, the Korean first edged fourth-seed Liz Jonson of USA with a 216-208 victory and in her next match, triumphed over third-seed and southpaw, Hisano Igarashi of JPBA 237-226 to continue to climb up the ladder.

Eun-Hee marched on to dispose off second-seed Yuuko Nakatani of JPBA with a remarkable 255-211 win. In the title match, topseed Cherie Tam looked set to win the title after the fifth frame with a double strike, spare and double strike; while Eun-Hee had a open frame.On the sixth frame, Cherie had an unlucky split while Eun-Hee bounced back with a double strike to close the gap. Cherie made two more spares but on the penultimate frame, she had a seemingly perfect pocket but left a corner pin 7 and then missed it.

This gave the Korean a great opportunity to overtake the Singaporean on the last frame but Eun-Hee made the worst release of the entire telecast games; the ball going right into the head pin and left a 3-4-6-7-10 split and failed to spare.

In Cherie's final frame, she delivered a solid pocket ball but left a stubborn pin 7 standing. She needed to spare it for the title but to the amazement of the capacity crowd, she missed it again to tie the score at 179.

In a one ball tie-breaker, Cherie delivered a solid pocket and looked like a 7-10 standing but finally pin 7 dropped for a 9 count. Eun-Hee stepped up and released a solid pocket with a pin 10 standing forcing another tie breaker.

Cherie only managed to get a 7 count while Eun-Hee put up another solid pocket for a 9 count which clinched her the title. The champion won a whopping 3 million Japanese yen (approx. US$30,000) while Cherie settled for 1.5 million yen.

Detailed scores: Stepladder Finals | Positions 5 - 8 Shootout | Photo Album.

Photos courtesy of B.C. Cheah.