Mother and son for Challenge Cup

The Mediterranean Challenge Cup will be staged in Ljubljana, Slovenia, between April 9 and 14.

Malta has never missed an edition of these regional champion-ships and has also acted as the host nation on two occasions.

This year’s team of four bowlers was decided by a 24-game qualifying tournament, held over three days at the Eden SuperBowl.

The winning foursome were Justin Caruana Scicluna, Rankin Camilleri, Sue Abela and Tiziana Carannante.

Caruana Scicluna is doing a sterling job in emulating his illustrious mother, Sue Abela, and is regularly racking up tournament wins and other achievements.

He led the men’s field from the opening game and never looked back. A score of 1,661 put him just ahead of Camilleri (1,653) while Dennis Mercieca closed Day One in third on 1,574.

Day Two saw the leader produce a stronger performance, with high games of 266, 224 and 248 helping him on to a great 1,751 total, for 3,412 over 16 games.

Caruana Scicluna was strong again over his final eight-game series, for a 1,658 set and an event winning 5,070.

His lead grew further to 268 pins and it was still Camilleri in the runner-up position with 4,802 pins, to book his flight to Slovenia next month. Mercieca was left back in third on 4,745.

On her part, Abela was in classic form over the first eight games, pushing her on to a 1,723 series.

That placed her 155 pins ahead of Carannante while Melissa Swift held third on 1,492.

Abela’s pace dropped a touch in the second session, which produced a 1,577 for a 3,300 16-game tally.

There were no changes on Day Three, however, with Abela winning the event with a 4,767 total.

She will be joined by Carannante in Ljubljana (4,657) with Swift missing out, settling for third place on 4,435.