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World Cup
    

42nd QubicaAMF World Cup 
November 4-10, 2006
Caracas, Venezuela

Reports from the World Cup.......Paulette Watson

   In the beginning...

The QubicaAMF World Cup, a tournament which moves from bowling zone to zone, country to country each year, is now happily settled in Caracas for five days of intense competition. The field of  92 countries represented by 88 men and 73 women  are bowling in the beautifully remodeled 40 lane Centro Nacional de Bowing Mampote just outside of Caracas.  Of all the bowlers who go through qualifying tournaments to represent their country, only one man and one woman per country get to the "Cup".  

Excitement is high among the Venezuela Bowling Federation and their bowlers to be able to host this prestigious event which has returned to their country after 32 years.  Smiles accompanied by gracious words of welcome to Venezuela are in abundance.  And the smiles are returned by all who are happy to be attending.

This "Cup" was in doubt up to last month as to the possibility of holding it in Venezuela.  Much work was needed to bring the center up to QubicaAMF standards for their venue.  And much work went into the refurbishment of the 40 lane Mampote Center which was built for the FIQ World Tournament in 1983 and needed updating for this major event.  A joint effort between Qubica AMF and Venezuela made it happen. Many long hours and a lot of manpower and cooperation went into having the center ready to host the 42nd World Cup.  New lanes, pinsetters and scoring machines were installed.  Boards were still being screwed down just before Opening Ceremonies and there was no time to test all the lanes before the official practice on Sunday.  Most lanes had the first ball thrown on them by the women in their practice session, the first of the day.  It was mentioned to this reporter by one of the coaches from another country, that this center would now be ideal to be used for many major Latin American bowling events in the American Zone since it was not only updated but also one of the larger centers in the South, Central and Caribbean area.  

The lanes...It was an enormous combined effort, a miracle say some, that Mampote was ready for the 42nd World Cup. Some say that having QubicaAMF bring the World Cup to Caracas (actually outside the city in the area known as Miranda) was the reason Mampote can again be used for Venezuelan tournaments as well as perhaps future international ones. They say that having the "Cup" here gave the push to put money into redoing the center.  

40 lanes, 12 of them stripped of parts to keep the other 28's machinery running, old scoring system, rotted boards, and more.  It needed much more than a facelift.  How much was done?  See the before and after pictures to see the phenomenal job accomplished. Our hats are off to Qubica AMF's staff who worked around the clock for the week before, Qubica AMF for bringing in more crew that they would have expected to need and the Venezuelan government and Bowling Federation for recognizing the sport of bowling's need, and also to the Venezuelans who worked alongside of QubicaAMF people to finish in time.  >>Go to pictures 

   In the End.....

 Women.... 3 rise to the top of the 73 field for the Champion's Cup

The field of 73 women has been cut to the top 3 for the final day of competition. Strangely enough, the field for today is the same as the top 3 positions on day one of bowling, Monday.  Lisa John, England, in 3rd place in the semi-finals, will take on Mai Ginge Jensen of Demark for best of 3 games to bowl against leader Diandra Asbaty, USA.  The final match for the Champion's title will also be determined by best of 3 games.  Denmark has been bowling well this week but Lisa John has shown that she can come on strong in the clutch as she did yesterday to take the 3rd position away from Scotland in the final game. 

United States bowler, Diandra Asbaty, the leader going into the finals, has been a good bet all week.  Her parents are at the tournament, as they usually are, to give her family support and cheer her on.  Her father commented at the beginning of the tournament that there was a full moon.  He says, "Diandra always bowls better with a full moon, remember how she did in Russia and Malaysia.  She has that going for her."  Well, Diandra isn't sure about the full moon bit but she says she just plans to stay ahead of the moves and that the faster pace yesterday helped since for her, bowling faster keeps her into a better rhythm.  This morning will see if Diandra can hold her top position and become 2006 Champion.

Match one.....John knocks out Jensen...
3 games, John takes first game 227-179.   Denmark's Jensen comes back to take the 2nd match 246 to John's 182.  The first two frames of the deciding match has Jensen with a strike, 9 spare to John's strike, 8 split (pick up one).  They are within one pin in the third frame as Jensen goes 9 spare and John strikes, but the fourth frame has John ahead by 5 as she doubles to Jensen's 7/.  It's game, match over as Jensen 5th thru 9th are 6 split, 9/, strike, 6 split and 8 split.  Finishing with three strikes does no good as Lisa John of England bowls 9/ in the 5th frame and strikes in 6 thru 10 getting 5-3 in bonus balls.  So it's England taking on United States for three more games and the title.  

You would think Jensen who is very slow in getting up and getting to the line might have thrown off John's game but in asking Lisa she said that it didn't bother her in match play as much as it might in regular play.

Match for the title.....John vs Asbaty...

And the Women's Champion for 2006 is.....
In two games, Diandra Asbaty, United States keeps her top spot leaving England's Lisa John to come in 2nd place for the 42nd QubicaAMF World Cup.  Guess that full moon was still with Diandra.  First game score was Diandra 232 to Lisa's 214.  Second game wound up the match with Diandra bowling a 226 to Lisa John's 199.

   Diandra Asbaty
   United States

Women's Champion
2006

Pictures courtesy of
Lucas Wiseman, USBC

Men's Finals.....

First game goes to Norway 289/241.  Although Michael Schmidt started a bit slow, he came back stringing strikes, but it wasn't enough to take the first match from Norway's, Petter Hansen.  

Second and final game of the match sees Schmidt get off to a slow start again. Norway, who's not feeling well, having the same problem as Jensen from Denmark, is handling it better it seems and keeps ahead of Schmidt.  Hansen takes away Schmidt's shot at again being a champion at the "Cup", having won in 2005 in Slovenia. Game score - 183/179.  Schmidt goes to 3rd Place, Hansen meets Palermaa, FInland, for 3 more games.

Final Match....

Was there a doubt?  Finland's Osku Palermaa is a machine.  He just keeps rolling those strikes - all week long.  OF the four perfect games bowled this week, Palermaa bowled two of them.  However, Norway's Petter Hansen put up a good fight for the title in the last two games, winning the second game and coming close in score on the third game 221 to 204.  But in fact Palermaa was ahead in every frame and the title for 2006 goes to Finland's Osku Palermaa,  Five Finnish players have won the championship title to date.

Monday, 6 November... Women

Laura Rhoney, Scotland

Throws first 300 
of the 42nd World Cup

Philippe Huber, Switzerland

Posts an almost in first game - 297

Women....First competition day,8 games, for the women in the tournament puts Mai Ginge Jensen of Denmark in the lead with 1893 pins,  Jensen is followed by Lisa John of England and Diandra Asbaty representing the USA, second and third respectively.  But it was Scotland's Laura Rhoney that rolled the 300 in her 3rd game of the day finishing in 5th place with her total of 1852 for the 8 games.  >>Go to scores

Men....First Squad:  Philippe Huber, Switzerland starts the men's first game of the day going 11stikes then throwing the ball wide to leave 1-2-10 split for the 297 high game for the men, but it only had him posting in 5th place.  Finland's Osku Palermaa leads after first 8 games with 2031 pins, averaging 253.88, putting him over 2nd place Michael Schmidt of Canada, last year's winner. 3rd place goes to Guy Caminsky of South Africa . >>Go to scores

Tuesday, 7 November..... Men's squads A and B bowl in morning with women bowling the last squad of the day.  

Men (1st squad)...Finland'a Osku Palemaa keeps early lead bowling 250 average for 16 games, helped out by 300 in 14th game making up for the low 171 he shot in game 12.  Palemaa a 22 year old pro shop owner from Espoo, Finland has an impressive bowling record for the past two years averaging 221 with 300 game and 833 set in his resume, Palemaa can boast of gold in the European Team Cup in 2007, gold in the World Youth Championships 2004 and gold again in the FInnish Nationals 2006. Of course he has some experience behind him, he says he has been bowling for 20 years and gives his "hand" as both right and left, but here he's releasing with his right hand.  

Will Palemaa's lead hold?  It looks good, but Canada's Michael Schmidt was hot on his heals with only less than 100 pins behind.  And Schmidt has yet to bowl his second set of 8.

Day 2
Finland's Osku Palemaa
300 Game 
1st in men's division

Men (2nd squad)... Finland's Osku Palemaa is still holding the top position but Michael Schmidt from Winnipeg, Canada is only 200 pins behind Palemaa's 4000 pins.  Schmidt, who won last year's World Cup in Slovakia is, of course, looking to be the only repeat winner in the "Cup's" history.  Kerri Ryan-Ciach, also from Canada, tried to repeat the top spot in 2004 in Singapore but lost in the finals to Sharron Pluhowsky, USA.  Schmidt needs to stay in the top and close in pins, not just to make the cut to 24, but because pins carry over until the cut after semi-finals. 

Bringing up 3rd place is Norway's Petter Hansen, bowling 3717 for his 16 games with 4th and 5th place South Africa and Ireland hot on his heals. American Zone players in the top 24 including Schmidt are Lucas Legnani, Argentina, in 13th, Dan Patterson, USA, in 18th, and in 22nd, 23rd and 24th positions are Caio Pizzoli, Brazil, Marco Odio, Costa Rica and Edgardo Ruiz, Puerto Rico.  >>Scores

Women...

Top four women stay up there but trade places.  Denmark's Mai Ginge Jensen drops from first place to second and Sweden's Helen Johnsson moves up from fourth to take the lead tonight.  Johnsson, the 30 year old economics assistant, is part of Sweden's national team and bowled the World Cup in 2004 and 2005, placing in 5th place each time.

Lisa John, England goes to 3rd position and USA's Diandra Asbaty drops down one into fourth.  Putty Insavilla Armein of Indonesia goes up to 5th place.

Eight American Zone women on top 24 list -  United States, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Canada, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela are holding in the top 24 spots as of 16 games.  >>Scores

Wednesday, 8 November.......

  The men's bowling...Men's "B" squad starts the day vying for the top 24 positions which are the only ones to continue the competition.  We will have to wait out the day to see who those top 24 will be as the last of the men, as the women bowl next and Squad "A" does not bowl until the last squad of the day

  Tidbits of the morning....Canada's Michael Schmidt rolls his only game under 200 in the last game of the qualifying rounds, but only 6 pins under.  However, with his 22nd game being only a 205, he posted 1829 for the 8 games today, still averaging 234.54 for the twenty-four games  But that isn't close enough to take the Fin today who's average up to last night was a 250 even.

The cut for squad "B" is a 204 average, but there are 21 players in the "A" squad over that mark and will change the early standings drastically. The wait to see who continues to bowl and who has a vacation in Venezuela for the balance of the 42nd World Cup will be somewhat nerve racking right up to the end of the day.  This writer's picks for tomorrow's bowling....somewhat easy to predict that 1st will be FInland, 2nd will go to Canada, but 3rd and 4th are definitely up for grabs.  >>Scores for today

   The women's games...Surprises, surprises.  Women change places with Lisa John, England taking top position and Diandra Asbaty moving into 2nd position. Only top 24 continue competition tomorrow.   >>Scores for today

   Men's final for Wednesday.... No surprises.  Osku Palemaa, Finland holds his first place postion.  Michael Schmidt stays in second place with Petter Hansen still in 3rd.  >>Scores for men's 24 games

Thursday, 9 November...  

Women...Top 24 women bowled first today for the top 8 spots who progress to the semi-finals this afternoon.
USA's, Diandra Asbaty holds the top spot with a 224 average.  The field for this afternoon reads,  in order of position,: USA, Denmark, Scotland, England, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Singapore and Sweden.  Venezuelan, Karen Marcano in 9th position and out of the tournament is only one pin behind 8th place Sweden.  Although she bowled well today, posting a 256 and 268 in her last two games, early week low games kept her out of the running.  >>See Scores

Men....High scores in the push to make the top 8....Saeed Al Hajri, Qatar, and Finland's Palemaa, kept the crowd cheering as both worked on  stringing strikes only a few lanes apart, Finland stopped short but Qatar went 11 for a 299 game.. Jason Walsh from Australia goes 10 frames for the big number and leaves a 10 standing in his eleventh. Germany's Achim Grabowski had his try for a 300 but leaves 7-10 with his twelfth ball. 
Indonesia's Ryan Leonard Lalisang made all twelve strikes in the next to last game of the quarterfinals but finishes in 11th place.  This afternoon's bowlers will be (in order of placing) Finland, Canada, Norway, Australia, Germany, Korea, England and Ireland. >>SeeScores

And on we go to the semi's.....men and women top 8 will bowl at the same time this afternoon. 

  Ryan Leonard Lalisang, Indonesia
  Rolls his 300 in the quarterfinals.

At the end of this afternoon, the 8 men and 8 women were cut to the Top 3, who will be in the running tomorrow for the championship.

Women....In a surprise 8th game, Laura Rhoney, Scotland, looking like the shoe-in for one of the top spots, bowling strong since game one, drops the ball to Lisa John, England.  Lisa came in with a 238 to Rhoney's 199 for 3rd position for the Finals.  Asbaty clearly kept 1st position throughout semi-finals and Mai Ginge Jensen worked her way to 2nd place.  >>See Scores

Men...No surprises in the bowling.  Finland keeps 1st place, Canada 2nd and Norway is 3rd.  Maybe Canada could have done better in his first games, seems someone relived him of his bag with money, passport, etc. No matter what happens tomorrow, Michael will have some not so pleasant memories of this year.  >>See Scores

Quick Schedule as of 4 November (subject to change)

Saturday, 4 November  

6-7 PM  Opening Ceremonies
7 PM Welcome Reception

Sunday, 5 November

Monday, 6 November
  First Set of 8

Tuesday, 7 November
  Second Set of 8