The Brunswick Euro Challenge rolls on today with squads 11-13, and bowlers from the USA occupy five of the top eleven spots after squad 11. In first is Anthony Pepe (pictured above). I've never heard of him, but he's from the USA and shot 299-258-217-245-297-256 for 1572 and a 262 average for six games. Right behind him is defending champion Mike Fagan with games of 221-260-281-236-257-300 for 1555. In seventh is Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, in ninth is Parker Bohn, and in eleventh is "Real Deal" Bill O'Neill.
Qualifying will continue through squad 23 on Saturday, so there may well be some big changes to the leaderboard between now and then. After that, the top 16 qualifiers will sit it out while the remaining 48 top qualifiers bowl six games to determine the top 16 from that group. There will then be 3-game, single elimination matches between the remaining 32 bowlers with qualifier #1 bowling qualifier #32, #2 bowling #31 and so on until the field is cut to four who will then compete in a traditional stepladder format for the championship and 13,000 Euro top prize.
I think we might be able to see live video coverage of the finals here, and, if not, we should be able to view it there later. What a wonderful opportunity to see great male and female bowlers from outside the USA and to see how our bowlers from the USA fare against them on conditions described as a "medium difficulty sport" pattern.
Stay tuned for further developments.
Steve, some background on Anthony Pepe:
ReplyDeletePepe is a lefty from Queens in New York. Early 20's, good all around talent. Excellent ability to post up shots and play all parts of the lane (a unique talent amongst lefties). Shy personality, doesn't say much but his game does a lot of talking for him. Bowled many junior events with him in the early part of the decade in the northeast. He has the potential to be a tremendous player, just needs more reps at the higher levels. Already a top-5, top-10 local talent in the highly competitive Long Island/Metro NY area.
Tommy, thanks for the info on Anthony Pepe. I hope he continues to do well at the Euro Challenge. It might springboard him to even bigger and better things. I look forward to seeing him on a PBA telecast one of these days. Maybe he'll be another Ryan Ciminelli or even Rhino Page.
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