Visiting players triumph in RI bowl tourney

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Zara Glover of England and Alex Liew of Malaysia have been named the winners of the third Indonesia Open Tenpin Bowling Championship in the women's and men's divisions respectively.

Glover, who emerged as the 2005 World Games runner-up, thrashed local hopeful Putty Armein 220-151, while Alex defeated Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong 245-210 in the finals on Friday.

"It is my first visit here, and I am very glad to win the title," Glover said.

With a smile lighting up her face now and then, Glover coolly outclassed out-of-sorts Putty to snatch the winning prize of Rp 25 million (US$2,500).

The winner made at least five strikes in her 10 frames, while Putty failed to show her good form, scoring only two strikes.

Glover offered a compliment to the Indonesian.

"Putty is a good player... she just played no good today," Glover said, adding that she expected to return to Indonesia next year along with other European athletes.

Putty looked disappointed with the result.

"I just could not adapt to the lanes in the final and Glover played much better than I did," she said.

It was a cruel reverse of results for Putty after her fight to the final.

Putty, who finished 15th last year, was fifth after two days of regular games. The top six players qualified for the "step-ladder finals", in which they were paired against each other for two places in the final.

In the first shootout match, Putty scored 257 pins against K N Lai of Malaysia (225) and Liza Clutario of the Philippines (227) to win the match.

During the game, Putty made six consecutive strikes to leave her opponents with no chance of catching up with her.

In the second shootout match, Putty recovered from initially shaky play to score 188 as she outplayed last year's champion Liza Del Rosario of the Philippines (187) and Novie Phang of Indonesia (162).

Putty conceded two splits. Though, five strikes and three spares were enough to give her a ticket to the final match against Glover.

In the men's final, Alex proved too strong for Wu to pocket the Rp 50 million top prize. Indonesian hopeful Yuyu was able to advance to the step-ladder finals, but he lost in the second shootout.

The top 16 men's and women's players from the Indonesia Open will play in the two-day Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) tour series beginning on Saturday.

Yuyu and Ryan Lalisang are Indonesia's hopefuls in the men's division while Putty and Novie have been given another chance for redemption along with Sheanny Gunawan.