The 2013 Tenovar National Championships have been played out at the Eden SuperBowl where, in the highly competitive men’s division, there was a first ever national title for Mauro Anastasi.
In contrast to that breakthrough victory for Anastasi, the women’s competition saw an eighth consecutive triumph for Sue Abela, Malta’s most prolific and successful tenpin bowler ever.
The men’s event is always hotly contested, typically with up to a dozen elite bowlers in with a realistic chance of walking off with the title at the end of the three-day, 24-game schedule.
The dual lane conditions – long and short oil on the same pair of lanes – makes Day Three’s eight-game series the most challenging of the nationals.
A strong 243-opener put Kenneth Arpa in the driving seat but not for long. As the session progressed, an epic battle for the top spot developed between Anastasi and Rankin Camilleri.
The pair matched each other over four games as Arpa fell by the wayside, but then a 224 for Anastasi in game five, against a 171 for Camilleri put just a little distance between the two, although it was still all to play for in the final three games.
The pair went 217-225 and 225-221 (Anastasi – Camilleri) in games 22 and 23, and Mauro was 41 pins ahead with just one game to play.
That would ordinarily be a comfortable advantage over one game, but with the pressure on, both bowlers knew that anything could happen.
Anastasi faltered to a below-par 182 game, and Camilleri registered a 205, trimming the gap to just 18 pins (4,815-4797), but the title was safely in the bag.
Abela’s domination of the local ladies bowling scene is no longer a foregone conclusion, although this has nothing to do with any loss of form by Malta’s top bowler.
It is rather down to the great improvement shown by a number of other bowlers, such as Joanna Attard, Tiziana Carannante and Melissa Swift.
Abela did pick up a fair lead on the short pattern in the first eight-game series.
However, the long oil on Day Two made for a much more even contest, with Abela unable to stretch her lead by any specific amount as she notched up a 3,074 total for 16.
There were no positional changes as Attard, Carannante and Swift tallied 2,888, 2,849 and 2,836 respectively.
Day Three was where the defending champion really came into her own, on the challenging, long-short conditions.
After a surprising 149 opener, Abela improved for a 1,570 for the day, and a title-retaining 3,074 final total.
Second place went to Swift who enjoyed her best set of the tournament with a 1,491 tally, and a 4,327 grand total.
Attard slipped to third on 4,303, with Carannante settling for fourth place on 4,293 pins.
As the new champions, Abela and Anastasi will represent Malta at the 2013 European Champions Cup in Bratislava, Slovakia in October.