Chris Sloan leads top 40 into finals at 9th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer

    02/22/15

    2015 European Bowling Tour #4

    Irish two-hander wins qualifying with 1503; Swedes Emil Ågren, Jesper Svensson move into second and fourth place; Dane Mai Ginge Jensen is the best woman in sixth place; score to make the cut in 40th place is 1321 (220.17 average)

    2015EBT04EmilAgren.jpg2015EBT04ChrisSloan.jpgIrish two-handed player Chris Sloan (pictured left) remained unchallenged in the final four squads on Saturday to win the qualifying of the 9th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer and to lead the top 40 players into Sunday's finals at Galeria Rozrywki Miraz bowling center in Wroclaw, Poland.

    Sloan averaged 250.50 and knocked down 1503 pins in squad 8 including games of 280, 279, 193, 289, 208 and 254 to pace a field of 103 players from 12 countries.

    Emil Ågren (right) of Sweden made a run at the lead in the penultimate squad 15 but a sup-par game five ended his hopes. Ågren finished with 1469, an average of 244.83 to jump into second place in the overall standings. He had games of 215, 277, 280, 245, 196 and 256.

    2015EBT03JesperSvensson2.jpg2015EBT04MaiGingeJensen.jpgChris Oates of England slipped one spot to third place with 1460. Two-handed lefty Jesper Svensson (left), a three-time European Bowling Tour titlist, rolled games of 236, 269, 248, 256, 228 and 223 in the last qualifying squad to tie Oates at 1460 and to finish qualifying in fourth place (see the EBT tie rules at the bottom of the standings).

    Danish two-handed player, Markus Bergendorff, fell from third to fifth place with 1447, closely followed by his fellow countrywoman Mai Ginge Jensen (right) with 1446. The former world champion had games of 235, 210, 204, 255, 290 and 204 for 1398 scratch, an average of 233.00, and received 48 pins handicap, a standard on the European Bowling Tour.

    2015EBT04MilesCorney.jpg2015EBT04MattiasOlsson.jpgThe qualifying in the Wroclaw Open featured Sloan's 1500-series and 13 1400-series. Miles Corney (left) of England hit 1400 on the nose in the first squad on Saturday (13th overall) to land 14th place. Mattias Olsson (right) of Sweden, who led squad 14 with 1342 made the first cut in 27th place with his high series of 1363.

    Three out of 17 women survived the cut. Joining Jensen in the finals were defending champion Kamilla Kjeldsen (16th; 1396) of Denmark and Frida Dahlgren (30th; 1346) of Sweden.

    Squad 1 leader Michał Zarzycki (below right) of Poland took the 40th and last spot to advance to the finals with 1321 or an overall average of 220.17.

    2015EBT04MichalZarzycki.jpgBowling fans will be able to follow the qualifying live and free of charge on IWO's online video streaming service (click here)

    2015EBT04IWOLogo_small.jpg The 9th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer is the fourth stop of the 2015 European Bowling Tour and the second of nine EBT "Satellite" events this season, the lowest of the four EBT categories.

    The IWO will be held from Wednesday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015 at Galeria Rozrywki Miraz bowling center, a 10-laner in Wroclaw, Poland.

    As in the past four years, participants will compete for total prize money of 26.000 Euro with 4.250 Euro going to the winner, 2.750 Euro to the runner-up and 2.100 and 1.800 Euro to third and fourth place finishers, respectively. Low to cash is 40th place (250 Euro).

    Qualifying (6 games, unlimited re-entries) ran through Saturday, Feb. 21. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game (maximum score is 300), an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events.

    The tournament will be contested on a 39-ft. lane conditioning pattern with 23.28ml volume oil total. Click image for larger view.

    The top 40 players from the overall qualifying standings will advance to the finals on Sunday Feb. 22. Qualifying pinfall carries over. The finalists will be divided into two squads (places 21-40 and 1-20), who will bowl a four-game block after which the field will be cut to the top 20.

    Those 20 will bowl another four games to cut to the top 8 who advance to seven games of round robin match play. All pinfall carries over into round robin, where bowlers earn 20 bonus pins per win, 10 for a tie, and 5 bonus pins for each game between 250 and 300. The top 4 will advance to the stepladder finals.

    The No. 4 seed bowls the No. 3 seed, the winner takes on the No. 2 seed and the winner of that match earns the right to bowl the No. 1 seed for the title. The opening match and the semifinal match will be decided in one game, while the championship match features two games decided by total pinfall.

    2015EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2015 European Bowling Tour currently consists of 18 tournaments in 14 countries featuring three "Platinum" events, three "Gold", three "Silver" and nine "Satellite" events. All 18 tournaments together offer total prize fund of roughly 900.000 Euro (approx. 1.024 million U.S. Dollar).

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 12 men and top 12 women, who will compete in the 9th EBT Masters July 25, 2016 at Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino following the San Marino Open.

     


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    9th International Wroclaw Open by Hammer - Standings after Qualifying


    Top 40 advance to the finals on Sunday, Feb 22.

     


    300 games (1) - Jesper Svensson.

    Tie Rules (Qualifying)
    In case of a tie in the qualifying, "the highest positioned player will be the player scoring the highest total of all counting qualification games minus the score of the lowest game. If a tie still exists, the highest positioned player will be the player with the highest total of all counting qualification games minus the score of the two lowest games, etc."