2009 Melaka, Malaysia

13th - 20th November

11/16/2009

Zara Giles (England) in the lead after first eight games

UK lead after first eight games (women)
It was a case of déjà vue for Zara Giles, formerly Zara Glover, when she found herself in the lead after the first qualifying block in the 45th Qubica AMF Bowling World Cup in Melaka, Malaysia. She also lead after the first block last year in Hermosillo, Mexico.
She is on 1805, an average of 225.6, ahead of Evgenia Tsarkova of Russia on 1751 and Joey Yip of Hong Kong on 1724. The only other player over 1700 was Scotland’s Laura Rhoney (1713).
It is the first tournament that Zara has played since getting married to Matthew in August and she said after bowling today: “I hope the change of name will be a good luck charm -  I finished third last year and am looking to go two better than that! But there are at least eight or ten really good players out there and anyone could win it.
“I felt good out there today and just had a bit of a problem on one pair of lanes. The conditions are excellent and I think there will be some really high scoring.”
For Evgenia, it was her best ever start by far. She has come 23rd in two previous Bowling World Cups, in 2006 and 2007, and is already the most successful Russian player.
An innovation for this year is on-line scoring which means that anyone can follow any player frame by frame in real time: click on live scoring banner and follow your favourite player or keep up to date with all the scores as they happen.
Anne-Marie Board, QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup manager, said: “The on-line scoring is amazing. No matter where you are in the world, you can follow the events in Melaka as they happen over the web. I’m sure it will become an very popular service during the tournament.”
The men bowl their first block this afternoon. Men and women then play two further qualifying blocks of eight games before the cut to the top 24 on Wednesday afternoon.