No. 1 seed Finland with Jari Ratia, Joonas Jehkinen and Kimmo Lehtonen (l-r, click on the image to enlarge it) defeated No. 2 England with Dominic Barrett, Mike Quarry and Darren Cundy in the titles match of the Trios event in the 2007 Men's European Championships at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria, to win the gold medal and to successfully defend the title.

Finnish veteran Kimmo Lehtonen, who won the team gold 22 years ago here at Plus Bowling in Vienna in the 1985 EC, was the sole member of the 2005 gold medal winning trio. The Englishmen earned the silver medal.

For the first time in the history of the European championships the gold, silver and bronze medalists are determined in match play finals. Both semi-final matches were decided in the final frame.

Top-seeded Ratia, Jehkinen and Lehtonen edged their compatriots No. 4 seeded Osku Palermaa, Timo Alho and Petteri Salonen (r-l) in a nail biter by four pins, 636-632.

The eventual champions were trailing their team mates by some forty pins in the middle of the game as Lehtonen was struggling. Tides turned in frames 7 and 8 when Salonen, who was a member of the gold medal winning trios in 2005, and Palermaa suffered three open frames.

A 6-7 split that resulted in an open frame by Lehtonen in the 10th kept the hopes of Finland 2 alive but lefty Joonas Jehkinen, a newcomer on the Finnish national team shut them out with a strike and a nine-count.
Barrett (front row, center, with Chris and Geoff Buck), Quarry and Cundy (back row from left) survived a late charge by Danes Thomas Larsen, Bo Winther Pedersen and Jesper Agerbo (below, l-r), seeded third, 612-602.

Pedersen, who leads in All Events after 18 of 24 games (combined results from Doubles and Trios events), had a chance to win the match with a double or to tie with strike-nine-spare. He left the bucket on his first shot, which sealed the Dane's fate.

Denmark and Finland 2 shared the bronze medal.