Sue Abela overall champion

A group of four top bowlers recently travelled to Turkey to represent Malta in the sixth Mediterranean Challenge Cup, held at the Korukent Bowling Centre, Istanbul.

Six nations competed in the tournament, namely, Cyprus, Israel, Italy, Spain, Malta and host country Turkey. The Maltese squad consisted of Kenneth Arpa, Leli Baldacchino, Sue Abela and Doris Camilleri. They were accompanied by MTBA president Julian Pace Bonello and Christer Backe, national coach.

Malta finished in the medals zone in all three events contested - singles, doubles and mixed. Abela went a step further and claimed the overall 'all-events' women's title.

In the women's singles both our bowlers gave fine performances. Abela, despite a niggling knee injury, managed to take the bronze medal after a six-game series of 1,165 pins (194 average), including high games of 218 and 237 in the fifth and sixth respectively.

Camilleri finished fifth, just 52 pins outside the medals zone. She played a good 185 average, peaking with a game of 208. The winner was Israel's Pnina Raskin on 1,263, followed by Avgi Nikolaou of Cyprus on 1,178.

Competition in the men's section is always tough. Arpa placed 10th and Baldacchino 12th. Here the winner was Turkey's Habib Dogan (1,279) while Spain's Marcial Ovide took silver with 1,251 pins. Christos Kourtellides, of Cyprus, was third (1,250).

Malta fared better in the doubles as both teams finished among the top three.

Abela and Camilleri opened with a low game in the ladies section, but then excelled with a 477 and a 448 in the second and third, with individual scores of 257 and 233 for Abela, and 220 and 215 for Camilleri.

This was exactly the boost the Maltese pair needed, as they went on to take the gold medal with 2,358, 146 pins ahead of Sandra Torrents and Virginia Esteban of Spain. Cypriot pair Irene Petallides and Avgi Niklaou were third on 2,125.

Arpa and Baldacchino had an excellent run in their doubles session, dropping below the 400 mark just once in game three.

Baldacchino started with two excellent games of 232 and 255 as Arpa found his form from game four onwards, hitting scores of 217, 236 and 233.

They bowled 2,453 points to take a deserved bronze, missing silver by just one pin. Gold was taken by Spanish duo of Montfort and Ovide who finished ahead of Cyprus's Kourtellides and Philippos Nikolaides.

The last day of the tournament saw all four players competing in the mixed teams contest. Malta was among the medal winners again.

Abela was our strongest, most consistent bowler over the six games played with scores of 203, 213 and 207 for a 1,180.

She was backed up by Arpa's 1,165 which included a fine 245 final game. Baldacchino also played well with opening games of 206 and 227 but Camilleri somewhat struggled with the lanes, not managing to top 200.

The team series of 4,522 was enough for Malta to take bronze behind gold medallists Spain and runners-up Italy.

After the three events, cumulative individual scores were calculated to determine the overall champions.

Yet again, the gold medal in the ladies all-events division went to Abela for her impressive 3,541 tournament pinfall - 205 pins better than nearest rival Raskin. Italy's Daniela Pialino was third. Camilleri missed out on the bronze medal by just nine pins.

Abela has represented Malta in all six editions of the Mediterranean Cup so far and has managed to make the all-events title her own by winning it an amazing five times.

Arpa and Baldacchino finished ninth and tenth respectively.

The Malta team was assisted by the MOC and the Ministry for Youth and Arts.