Brunswick Euro Challenge Update

Americans Anthony Pepe and Mike Fagan continue to lead the Brunswick Euro Challenge in Saint Maximin, France, but Malaysian Adrian Ang is putting on an amazing show of consistency by amassing the highest score in all three squads in which he's bowled and moving up to sixth place overall by virtue of his latest effort of 258-244-268-245-255-210 for a 1480 series and 246.67 average. Malaysia is a bowling powerhouse, and Ang is considered to be the best male bowler in that country. Look for him and other Malaysian bowlers to continue to put their stamps on this and future world competitions.

Also, look for Mika Koivuniemi, Norm Duke, and Brian Voss to rise higher in the standings. All have bowled one squad today and may well bowl again to move up on the leaderboard. Koivuniemi is 9th, Duke 38th, and Voss, who finished second to Mike Fagan last year, is currently in 147th place. I also see that local-boy-makes-good PJ Haggerty sits comfortably in 21st place at the moment but may try to move up as well. Heck, if you're going to fly all the way to France to bowl in a big tournament, you might as well make the most of it.

Qualifying ends tomorrow, and single elimination match play followed by the stepladder finals take place on Sunday.

UPDATE TO UPDATE

No sooner had I posted the information above when I saw that another squad had concluded and that Osku Palermaa, the two-handed sensation from Finland, has moved into third place. He had bowled an earlier squad to sit in 96th place, but that would have left him out of match play. Now he's guaranteed to make the cut, and those of us who have seen him bowl on American TV, such as last Sunday, know that he's a force to be reckoned with. It's too bad Jason Belmonte isn't there too, and healthy.