Prince Mohammed wins seniors’ title in HH Shaikh Khalid bowling

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Prince Mohammed bin Sultan bin Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was last night crowned champion of the Seniors division in the His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa First Bowling Championship, being played at Funland Centre. Prince Mohammed clinched first place after defeating American Dante Tisdom 177-169 in the title-deciding match of the step-ladder final round. He had earlier topped the round of eight, where he posted a total of 1,550 pins for a 221.43 average to earn a direct spot in the last step.

Prince Mohammed led five bowlers into the step-ladder. Advancing as the second seed was Mohammed Al Shawoosh (1,536, 219.43), while third was Yasser Abu Al Reesh (1,367, 195.29), also from Saudi. The last two to make it through were Hameed Taqi (1,329, 189.86) and Tisdom (1,299, 185.87). Missing out on the step-ladder were Mustafa Qaed, Yousif Al Ali and Arif Murseel.

In the opening step, it was a three-way battle between Abu Al Reesh, Taqi and Tisdom, and it was Tisdom who won with a score of 221 to advance to the next step to face Al Shawoosh. Abu Al Reesh had a 173 game while Taqi played 178. In the ensuing step, Tisdom rode his momentum to beat Al Shawoosh 210-176, setting up the final clash with a waiting Prince Mohammed.

Meanwhile, qualifying continued for the men and Abdulla Dolaijan from Saudi won the penultimate evening’s high series prize after scoring 743 pins. That added to his other two top trials of 749 and 685 to bring his total to 2,177 for a 241.89 average, which helped him improve to third place.

Still leading the men was Yousef Falah, followed by Ahmed al Mahri from the UAE. In the women’s division, Nadia Al Awadhi continued to occupy the top spot, but Hind Al Hammadi from the UAE narrowed the gap to just four pins. Layla Al Janahi improved to third place. Today and tomorrow are the final two days of the competition. The top 24 from the men qualify for the next stage, while the top eight from the women advance.