Forty-four players from 11 European countries challenged for the title and a share of the €5,000 in prize-money in the 21st Malta Open, played recently at the Eden SuperBowl.
The tournament format, introduced in 2009 to include a ‘re-entry’ system, was retained for this year’s event.
After all qualifying squads were completed it was Kenneth Arpa who topped the standings on 2,802. Belgium’s Christian Vandamme, a Malta Open regular, was second on 2,757 while local champion Mark Spiteri was third on 2,751.
There were no fewer than 14 Maltese bowlers among the top 24 at this stage of the tournament.
Sunday is always Final Day and Sue Abela was fast to hit form, banging in a 216-225-171-220 set for an 864 total.
The leading eight players figured in Final Stage 2 for another four games and Abela was joined by Darragh McLoughlin (Ireland), Mauro Anastasi, Neil Sullivan, Mark Muscat, Jos Bakker (Holland), Danial Swift and Helmut Kein (Austria).
Abela kept up her blistering pace, again placing first with an even better tally of 915. In fact, it was a Maltese 1-2-3-4 at this stage with Sullivan on 871, Justin Caruana Scicluna on 824 and Rankin Camilleri on 823.
Bigi Manico (Switzerland) qualified in fifth with her 822 effort while Muscat claimed the final qualifying spot in Final Stage 3 where the top four from Round One (Arpa, Vandamme, Spiteri and Paul Stott) rejoined the fray.
The 10 survivors figured in a round-robin where, apart from game scores and any ladies’ bonus, there were also extra bonus points up for grabs.
Irishman Stott lost his first two but soon made amends for that slow start with a run of three high-scoring victories to claim the top spot on a 2,262 stage total, thus guaranteeing his place in the final.
The excellent Spiteri placed second with 2,214 points, ahead of Vandamme, 2,197, and Camilleri who booked the last spot in the Stepladder Finals.
Camilleri did well to keep his head against Vandamme and emerge on top with an edgy 202-189 victory to book a semi-final berth against Spiteri.
While the majority of the crowd found it difficult which one of these popular locals to root for, Spiteri rose to the occasion with a superb 246, easily beating his opponent’s 190 effort to head on to the final against Stott.
The final was a best-of-three contest. Dublin’s Stott gained the early advantage with a 218-195 win, meaning Spiteri needed two wins to claim the title.
He did step up his game in the second but it just was not to be as Stott took it 254-223 to clinch the title.