World Cup champion takes over pole
5th May, Lake Wales: Reigning World Cup champion, Osku Palarmaa of Finland took over pole position of the men's overall standings in the World Ranking Masters 2007 and the squad prize of US$1,000 in the process.
A superb 246 from the joint first squad leader, Remy Ong allowed the Singaporean to take a brief lead at the expenses of Paul Moor shooting a poor 170 opener in squad 2. Ryan Lalisang stole the limelight as a stubborn 10-pin robbed the Indonesian of a perfect game on 299 in Game 2.
By the third game, the 2006 WBW World Bowler of the Year and World Cup champion, Osku Palermaa of Finland had taken over the lead in both this squad and overall standings but just 1 pin ahead of Lalisang.
Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, who really suffered on the long oil condition yesterday was much happier on the short oil and was third at this stage. Despite grabbing the lead at the halfway mark of this squad, Wu was still way down the overall table.
While the two were going at it, hammer and tongs to get back the lead, the short oil condition was proving to difficult to master as Paul Moor struggled and dropping to 24th on this squad and seventh overall.
The elusive perfect game had yet to come and once again a 7-pin stood in its way for Stuart Williams in game 6 but had allowed the Englishmen to take the lead and an eye on the US$1,000 bonus with Wu close on his tail.
A 278 in game seven put him in a comfortable position with 62 pins lead and a 25 pins buffer over Osku Palermaa in the overall standings. For the second night on the trot, highway robbery was committed against an English bowler.
Last night, Remy Ong had the audacity to tie with Paul Moor and snatched the bonus and today Stuart Williams had a 62 pins advantage going into the last game but was pipped at the post by just 3 pins when Palermaa rolled the tournament's first 300 game.
The pair are also one-two in the overall standings with 3852 and 3812 respectively ahead of another two-handed player, Jason Belmonte of Australia third with 3758.
"Stuart had some bad breaks and I had some good ones," commented Osku after the squad. "But that's bowling."
Looking forward to tomorrow's baffling dual lane condition, with one lane on short oil, the other on long, Osku said: "I'm quite happy with that set-up. I bowled on it last year in the World Ranking Masters in Kuwait and I think I hit over 1900 over the eight games."
Detailed scores: Men's Squad 2 | Men's Overall Standings | Photo Album.
Photos courtesy of Bowlers Journal International.