As round two of the Honda National League commenced at the Eden Superbowl last week, Fina First and Aercomms both won their matches 8-0 to make headway at the top of Division One.
Striking Distance, in third place, failed to keep up the pace though as they were held to a draw while mid-table side Technicolor rolled the highest team series of the week in an 8-0 win over Maltacom KSSK.
A clumsy second game almost cost Aercomms two points against lowly Telesystems. After a confident 803-699 win in game one, game two went down to the wire with Aercomms scraping by in the last gasp - 693-686. That shock treatment appeared to work for Aercomms as they came back to win the third 784-697.
Fina First, ten points ahead of Aercomms, were never in danger of losing a point against www.okmalta.com. In the end the leaders finished with a 351-pin advantage. Captain Sue Abela notched a solid 666, notwithstanding a 175 in the third game.
Technicolor opened with an awesome 921 game (894 scratch) on their way to beating Maltacom. The latter almost clinched two points in the second game which Technicolor won in the last frame - 700-696.
Joanna Attard rolled a great 622 series for the winners while Emmanuel Scerri rolled a 537 for Maltacom who are 10th.
Fina Excel beat So-Safe 6-2 to strengthen their championship hopes. After relatively easy wins in the first two games, giving Fina a 112-pin advantage, they dropped their guard in the remaining match as So-Safe came back to win it 775-723.
There was also a 6-2 result in favour of Globalair Travel as they clashed against Bomba Giants. Amanda Cini had a 576 for seventh-placed Globalair and there was a 551 for Alistair Muscat of Bomba Giants.
Striking Distance drew their match against Warsteiner. This result saw the top two teams extending their leading margin at the top. The series progressed with scorelines of 734-765, 822-699 and 757-767. Striking Distance claimed the points series thanks to their big second game. They were 82 points better than their rivals on the night.
Standings: Fina First 82; Aercomms 72; Striking Distance 64; Fina Excel 62; So-Safe 53; Technicolor 50; Globalair 44; www.okmalta.com 40; Warsteiner 34; Maltacom KSSK 31; Bomba Giants 28; Telesystems 16.
Bowlers of the week: Brian Farrugia (644) Fina Excel; Sue Abela (666) Fina First.