Youth and junior champions honoured at MTBA presentation
The newly-crowned youth and junior national champions were honoured earlier this month at a presentation ceremony held by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association at the InterContinental Hotel. Presentations for the recently-concluded Middlesea Valletta...
The newly-crowned youth and junior national champions were honoured earlier this month at a presentation ceremony held by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association at the InterContinental Hotel.
Presentations for the recently-concluded Middlesea Valletta Life National League were the main focus of the evening, but in a separate ceremony, junior league winners Nicole Said and Ryan Grima were awarded trophies along with youth champions Tiziana Carannante and Rankin Camilleri.
The National Junior Championships, open to Under-16 bowlers, are played on a simple 12-game format over two sessions.
After the initial six games, Said was already top of the girls' division on 808 pins, ahead of Sabrina D'Emanuele and Christabel Grima.
Said managed to retain her lead and secure the title after the second series, despite a strong comeback from Grima who finished second ahead of D'Emanuele in third place.
Eventual boys' winner Grima was also ahead after six games, having played a good game average of 166.8 pins. Gabriel Borg was second while third place was occupied by Philip Gruppetta. The top three placings remained the same after day two, Grima being confirmed champion.
The Youth Championships (Under-23) were played over two qualifying rounds, followed by a stepladder final for the top three bowlers in each category.
Carannante and Camilleri both qualified in first place for the respective finals. Second- and third-placed qualifiers for the ladies were Stephanie Said and Jade Cosaitis while Justin Caruana Scicluna and Matthew Cossai joined Camilleri in the men's division.
Said beat Cosaitis 160-109 in the female semi-final to set up a final match against Carannante.
Said managed to take the first game 153-167 but then, a 187-135 win for Carannante in game two clinched it for the top seed.
In the men's semi-final, Scicluna beat Cossai 199-181. In the final, Caruana Scicluna won the first game, 205-213, but Camilleri bounced back to win the decider 204- 163 and clinch the title.