Monday
24th July 2006 – The 32-lane centre at AMF Mt
Druitt played host to the prestigious 2006 New South
Wales Open under the guidance of new AMF National
Tournament Director, Brett Smith.
This event forming
part of the Tenpin Bowling Australia National Rankings
Tour also attracted double ranking points with entries
from 63 men and 27 women from around Australia and
New Zealand journeying to the centre in the far western
suburbs of Sydney.
Men’s Day
One Qualifying – fresh from his gold medal performance
at the Commonwealth Championship, left-hander George
Frilingos of Queensland, headed qualifying at the
halfway mark with games of 224, 199, 202, 220 &
205 to be +50. Challenges for the lead came from Craig
Bourke, +60, Brandon Qualischefski, +33 and Michael
Little, +32. Paul Reus was the only other bowler over
the card at this point while there was daylight to
the rest of the field.
Northern Territory
bowler Andrew McArthur, -77, then found some form
recording the tournament high game of 299, supporting
this with games of 200, 231, 227 & 199 to jump
the field and lead qualifying with a pinfall of 2079
over the 10 games. Little at +68 and Qualischefski
at +59 where the only other bowlers to beat the card
on this testing lane condition. The field cut to the
top 24 bowlers after Day One for a Day Two 4 game
shootout to establish the top 14 for the Elimination
Finals.
Women’s Day
One Qualifying – Northern Territory bowler Rebecca
Simpson and Queenslander Kate Wilton shared the lead
at the halfway mark of qualifying at -25. Solid final
games by Ann-Maree Putney -16, Jayde Flanagan -18
and Michelle Halprin at -67 saw them jump the midway
leaders and set the tone for the top 14 into Day Two
Elimination Finals.
Men’s Day
Two Qualifying – the battle to make the top
14 returned to a 4 game shootout on Sunday morning.
The top 2 after these 4 games secured a one round
bye into the Elimination Final and the battle for
these spots intensified right from the first ball.
Frilingos was the big mover from 7th overnight with
starting games of 266 & 220 and knocking on the
door of the top spots. With follow up games of 234
& 177 Frilingos jumped to the lead ahead of McArthur,
Qualischefski and the fast improving Jason Walsh.
Sam Romeo, Mark Loader, Craig Bourke and Matt Riley
all improved positions to make the final 14.
Men’s Elimination
Final – round one of this single elimination
best of 5 game final saw no surprises with seeds 3
through 7 all accounting for their opposition. Round
2 pitted the defending champion, Sam Romeo, against
two time NSW Open winner George Frilingos into a 5
game battle which saw Frilingos emerge victorious
3 games to 2. McArthur easily accounted for Paul Trotter,
while Qualischefski and Little were both stretched
to 5 games before moving to the next round.
The semi final round
saw Frilingos pitted against Qualischefski and McArthur
take on Little. Frilingos and McArthur both took care
of their opposition 3 games to 1 to progress to the
all lefty final.
Andrew McArthur,
being the fresher of the two, took advantage of this
in the final and snared games of 223, 231 and 166
to defeat Frilingos 3-0 to add another major title
to his resume.
Women’s Elimination
Final – the Northern Territory dominance in
this event continued in the Women’s Finals with
Michelle Halprin accounting for Victorian Natalie
Shelley in 5 games and Rebecca Simpson over Katie
Stuart in 4. Kelly Gardiner and Kate Wilton made it
through in 4 games, while Maxine Nable and Julie Hird
only took 3 games.
Top qualifying Ann-Maree
Putney and second seed Jayde Flanagan took advantage
of their opponents in round two, while Michelle Halprin
was again stretched to 5 against Gardiner. Simpson
defeated Wilton in 3.
Putney was pitted
against Simpson in the semi final. With Putney finding
the line early recorded a 244 to 219 first game win,
Simpson followed this with games of 269, 217 &
238 to take the match and move through to the Grand
Final to meet Flanagan who also accounted for Halprin
in 4 games.
The all Northern
Territory grand final was one of the best matches
of the day with Simpson taking the first game 205-194,
Flanagan rebounding to take the next two games 193-174
and 181-170, while Simpson recovered to tie it up
into the 5th game, 200-188. Both bowlers slugged it
out in the final game coming down to only a spare
in the tenth frame to secure the title for the 22
year old Flanagan, her first major title.
The next round
of the AMF Super Six circuit moves south to Victoria
and the South Pacific Classic on the 15th –
17th September 2006. The 2006 South Pacific Classic
also forms the qualifying for the Australian representative
to the 2006 AMF World Cup in Venezuela.
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