Wendy Chai of Malaysia and Lynda Barnes of the USA threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the field hitting 1443 and 1453 respectively over the second block of six games at the 41st QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Wendy is now in the lead, on a total pinfall of 2766, a 230.6 average, just ahead of Lynda who is on 2753.

Wendy was delighted with her performance today and said: 'I felt a lot more comfortable on the lanes. Perhaps I was more tense yesterday because it was the first day. I didn't change anything about my game for today and I didn't have to move much on the lanes to be able to deliver a good shot.'

England's Fiona Banks was the third player to hit over 1400 for the six games. She shot 1402 and rose from 10th overnight to occupy fourth place on 2628, behind first round leader Helen Johnsson of Sweden who hit 1363 today and is now on 2704.

In addition to the top four, two other players hit over 1300 - Nardy del Biondo of Venezuela with 1317 and Nadia Ageel (Al-Awadhi) from the Kingdom of Bahrain with 1302.

Nardy also boasts the womenÂ’s high games so far on 279.

The halfway stage of the qualifying has now been reached and the cut for the top 24 is at an average of 189.

For full results please go to www.amfbowlingworldcup.com or www.arenalive.si and click on the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup logo.

The field will be cut to the top 24 in each section on Thursday evening. Those players will play a further eight games to determine the eight players who will go through to the knock-out finals. The semi-finals and finals will be held on Sunday November 20th and carried live on Slovenian TV.