Sue Abela and her son Justin Caruana Scicluna will represent Malta in the Qubica-AMF World Cup which will be held in Johannesburg between November 30 and December 7.

The two Maltese bowlers won the right to play in this prestigious event after topping their respective divisions in the qualifying competition, held at the Eden SuperBowl recently.

In the men’s competition, veteran John Balani took a deserved first-day lead when he shot a very consistent 1,610 total for eight games, with a high of 226 in game three. That put him just 18 ahead of Dennis Mercieca in second (1,592) and Ray Falzon Reale in third (1,569). Caruana Scicluna was fourth on 1,560 pins.

With only 50 pins separating the top four bowlers and 16 games remaining, anything could happen.

Balani was unable to keep his pace in day two, dropping to fourth and swapping places with young Caruana Scicluna who took the top spot with 3,148 from 16 games.

There were more changes among the front runners with Danial Swift, in second place on 3,135, and Kenneth Arpa in third, tied with Balani on 3,098, meaning it was still a 50-pin spread at the top.

Day three was every bit as interesting as the previous two, with Balani looking to make a comeback with a three-game start of 710 (232-232-246).

His game then waned somewhat, as Caruana Scicluna improved through the back four games, which included back-to-back efforts of 247 and 254, for an eventual total of 4,786 (199.4 ave) to make sure of first place.

Balani held on to second on 4,735 pins (197.2 ave), followed by Mercieca in third (721, 196.7 ave).

Abela led the ladies’ field from day one to claim her World Cup place. She topped the charts after eight games with a 1,520 total (190 ave) and retained her position through games nine to 16.

Abela had 3,068 pins with Melissa Swift second on 2,962. Tiziana Carannante was third on 2,951 pins.

There were no positional changes on day three which ended with a tournament winning total of 4,643 (193.4 ave) for Abela, 4,506 for Swift, and 4,500 for Carannante.