Mark Spiteri holds the Masters trophy.

The annual MTBA Masters, sponsored by Sigma Paints, were held at the Eden SuperBowl, St Julian’s with top-flight player Mark Spiteri retaining the title for the second year running.

In a slight change to the format from previous years, the top eight seeded bowlers based on their composite averages from 2013, automatically progressed to the latter stages, the top four seeds going straight into the quarter-finals while seeds five through eight started from the Step One stage.

A further eight bowlers made it through to Step One from an initial six-game qualification stage. They were Joanna Attard, Melissa Swift, Danial Swift, Tiziana Carannante, Claude Camilleri, Mark Muscat, Sara Xuereb and Philip Gruppetta.

The six Step One games created an unusual scenario as, at the end of the series, all four of the previously seeded bowlers were eliminated... Sue Abela in fifth place, Ray Falzon Reale (sixth), Neil Sullivan (eighth) and Tiziana Carannante (12th).

Danial Swift came out on top with a 1,220 total (203.3 ave) while in second place was Mauro Anastasi on 1,196.

The women compete alongside men in the MTBA Masters and are awarded an extra eight bonus pins per game.

Attard made the most of it, placing third on 1,194, while the fourth and final qualification spot went to another woman player, Swift, on 1,176.

The four 2013 top seeds entered the fray at the quarter-final stage, those being (seeded order Spiteri, Kenneth Arpa, Justin Caruana Scicluna and Rankin Camilleri.

This step was played over just four games with the top six advancing to the semis.

Anastasi put on a quality display to take the top spot on 828 (207 ave), while Caruana Scicluna took second on 796 pins. Third place was held by Arpa on 782, and Spiteri was just behind on 778, ahead of Swift on 731. Camilleri took the final spot with a 675 set.

In a total break with tradition, the semi-finals were played to a stylised knock-out schedule with the six finalists split into two groups of three.

After one game, the bottom bowler from each group was eliminated with the remaining two playing another game to decide who would make it into the final.

The first to bow out were Swift (185) from Group A, and Camilleri (178) from Group B in the initial game. Then game two saw Anastasi and Camilleri crash out with losing games of 164 and 178 respectively.

That left group winners and also past Masters champions Arpa and Spiteri to battle it out in the single game final.

It was Spiteri who established a clear advantage as the final progressed, finally winning it 228-181 to mirror his 2010 MTBA Masters title.