Busuttil, Carannante junior bowling champions

Mattia Busuttil and Tiziana Carannante are the new national junior champions after emerging winners from the MTBA championships played recently at the Eden SuperBowl.

The top six boys were Rankin Camilleri, Justin Caruana Scicluna, Ramon Casha, Ryan Borg, Keith Busuttil and Mattia Busuttil. Carannante, Stephanie Said, Faye Formosa, Valentina Bezzina, Luisa Buttigieg and Claire Bugeja were the girl qualifiers.

Underdog Busuttil pulled off a fantastic round two revival, winning four from his five games to shoot up from sixth to first place with eight match points.

In the final he beat Borg 183-134 and 180-172 for a 2-0 victory.

Carannante's eight points kept her in first place for the finals, where she met Said. The latter also claimed four victories to tie on eight points, but conceded the positional edge due to the Carannante's better pinfall.

The final's opening game was a real thriller, coming down to the last frame and falling to Carannante 189-181. The loss may have affected Said's confidence as in the second game she dropped to 140 against a 181 from her more consistent opponent.

The championships have heralded the impressive growth and improvement in the junior game. The event, contested by 27 bowlers, was a huge credit to the dedication of the young players and coaches Giancarlo Tolu and Pierre German.

Round two alone produced an excellent total of eight 200+ games, peaking with Borg's 225 opener, while the tournament's high went to Caruana Scicluna who rolled a 235 in round one.