The Final Four

It’s the final day and in the round of eight.  With a 30 pins bonus for winning each head-to-head match, anything can happen – and often does.

Chris Sloan (Ireland) continued his remarkable advance and was in third place after five games. The leading players were still there: Martin Larsen (Sweden) and Wang Hongbo (China). With the women, Syaidatul Afifiah of Malaysia was advancing on the top four and with just the position round to go, she did indeed make the four.

In the seventh game, Chris played Wang. It looked like it might be a draw but a big split for Wang in the 10^th frame gave the game to Chris who consolidated his third spot.

By the position round, the top two in each section were assured of their places: Bernice Lim of Singapore and Danielle McEwan from the USA, and Martin and Wang. It was the battle for the fourth place which looked exciting in both sections.

Jenny Wegner (Sweden) would play Syaidatul but Lisa John of England was not too far behind fourth and a good game with a win could put her up there. For the men, Chris had an advantage of 80 pins over Anze Grabrijan of Slovenia who had worked his way up into fourth spot. But Petteri Salonen of Finland was a mere five pins behind with David Simard of Canada just 21 pins further back.

Anze bowled brilliantly and ran out the winner by 267 to 195, but neither Petteri nor David could beat Chris’s score by enough. So our men finalists are Martin, Wang, Anze and Chris.

For the women, Syaidatul beat Jenny 213 – 200. Lisa won her match but her score was not high enough and she finished just outside the finals, in fifth. Our women finalists are Bernice, Danielle, Syaidatul and Jenny.

These results mean that Sweden wins the top country award, for the fourth time since the award was introduced.