Stephanie Said is the winner of the ladies’ division of the 2012 Tenovar Gold Cup while top round-one qualifier Claude Camilleri held on to clinch the title in the men’s competition.

The final stages of this tournament were played out at the Eden SuperBowl, starting with a round-robin stage for the top six bowlers in each category and culminating in the stepladder finals for the eventual top three.

Said qualified for the penultimate round-robin stage in top spot, 210 pins ahead of the field, having won three of her matches to pick up 60 valuable bonus points.

That gave her an automatic place in the final as top seed. Said’s nearest challenger was Marianne Mula who went through in second place with a 3,197 total. Josephine Borg made up the final three with her 3,122.

Borg prevailed in the single game semi-final, with a 200-174 win over Mula, and so went on to face Said in the final match.

As underdog, Borg needed to beat her opponent twice, whereas just one game would be enough for the top seed to retain her crown.

Borg won the opening game, taking it 202-174 to force a decider. The pace was much closer but this time it was Said who made sure of victory, winning it 189-172 to make it two titles in a row.

Having had the men’s round one lead snatched from him by Camilleri by a mere three pins (2,417-2,414), Peter Mallia went into the final day eyeing revenge.

All went to plan during the round robin as Mallia chalked up four wins from five against only two victories for Camilleri who made short work of dispatching Matthew Cossai in the semi-final, beating him 211-178.

Once again the game two decider was required in the men’s final as Camilleri picked up a good 219-167 win in game one. Game two was even closer but Mallia just couldn’t find the shot to crack his opponent, who won it 199-177 for the Gold Cup title.

Said and Camilleri will now be travelling to Vienna to take part in an open tournament with all expenses being covered by the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association as part of their prize.