Pins Lincoln Bowl in the harbour-side city of Auckland is preparing to host one of the highlight events on tenpin bowling’s international sporting calendar.

Commencing on February 24, bowlers from every corner of the Commonwealth, including Malta, will compete at the VI Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling Championships.

The week-long programme of singles, doubles and team competitions will culminate on the weekend of March 2-3 with the Masters event that showcases the top 12 male and female bowlers in a head-to-head format to determine the individual champions.

The Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling Federation (CTBF) perpetual Triple Diamond Trophy, representing the three international zones of the sport of bowling, will also be awarded to the highest scoring team overall.

The highly-coveted trophy is currently held by Malaysia.

“We look forward to welcoming teams representing Pakistan and Mauritius for the first time since our inaugural Commonwealth Championship in 2002,” CTBF president Julian Pace Bonello said in a statement.

“It will be an excellent opportunity for players from these regions to hone their skills and benefit from competing with nations like Australia, Malaysia, England, India and my home country of Malta that have competed in all five of the previous biennial championships.

“These championships reflect the ideals of the Commonwealth Games Federation as a friendly but highly-competitive tournament with no discrimination by age, race or gender.”

The Malta contingent in New Zealand will be led by Pace Bonello and the team will be composed of Sue Abela, Joanna Attard, Justin Caruana Scicluna and Neil Sullivan.

They will be accompanied by coach Rick Vogelesang.