2011 Johannesburg, South Africa

Spectators at the Let’s Go Bowling Northcliff centre went wild this afternoon when Francois Louw, the local player, made it into the top eight.  And what a finish! With one game to go, Steve Thornton of England was 53 behind Francois but Steve started striking and hit the first eight. Francois kept his head and finished strongly, with a 246. Steve had to strike out but left a single pin in the 9th frame, finishing with a 269 so that Fran made it by 29 pins. Fran said afterwards: “Whew! I made it! I knew I had to hit a good score but I did get lucky as two of my strikes were Brooklyn! 29 pins sounds a lot but it didn’t feel like it down on the lanes.”

This session also saw two more 300 games, including a second perfect game of the tournament for Jason – to go with the 300 he rolled in the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in St Petersburg in 2007. Biboy Rivera of the Philippines, who finished third in the tournament last year also shot a perfect game.