The European Champions cup started in 1979 and the winners list reads like a who’s who of top European players. Germany’s Norbert Griesert is the only male to have won three times in 1989,1990 and 1991 with names like Philippe Dubois, Mika Koivuniemi, Tomas Leandersson and in recent years Kimmon Lehtonen, Joonas Jahi and 2018 winner Bodo Konieczny. Germany again top the ladies with three wins for Tanya Petty and recently Casja Wegner, Felippa Persson and Mai Ginge Jensen last year.
Home nation wins include Seven Gold, Five Silver and Eleven Bronze for England and Bronze for Scotland’s Mhairi Shaw in 2002. The event is being held in Ankara, Turkey from the 20th-27th October.
Latest results can be found on the Official tournament website here
England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all have players out in Turkey. Scotland’s Steven Gill in hot form at the moment after his recent Scottish Open Win and Tania Yusaf out to the Bowling World Cup in November. England’s Cairns and Marcham busy this year at the European Mens Championships and Woman’s World Championships. Irish international Alan Bride is one to watch as are the younger Wales pair of Robson and Morgan. There could be medals for our home nation players with the experienced Northern Irish siblings Grant and Lauren too.
Reports
Women’s Block 1
The 2019 ECC got underway on Wednesday morning with the first block for the women. Setting the pace were a pair of home nation stars as Scotland’s Tania Yusaf hit 1732 over the eight games to lead the field. England’s Laura Marcham placed second with 1712 including a fine 279 in game 3 and 264 in game 7. Sweden’s Joline Persson Planefors took third with 1695 as The Netherland’s Denise Blankenzee hit fourth with 1684.
Home Nation Reports
With Scotland in first and England in second, what of the other HN players? Wales Chelsea Walters was in 29th with 1331 and Northern Ireland’s Lauren Dugan in 32nd with 1215.
Men’s Block 1
A final 251,233 and 279 helped Russian Anton Zelenkov leap up the standings to first after the first eight games with 1811. Second was Yiannis Stathatos from Greece with 1767 followed by Denmark’s Jesper Agerbo in third with 1758 and Belgium’s Bram Van Meerbergen in fourth with 1753.
Home Nation Reports
England’s Adam Cairns placed highest in 11th with 1665 and Scotland’s Steven Gill was in 18th with 1627, Welshman Glenn Robson in 19th on 1610, Ireland’s Alan Bride in 2th with 1570 and Northern Ireland’s Grant Dugan in 29th with 1522.
Men’s Block 2
The race for a place was on in the second men’s block on Thursday morning and a few players made a jump to the top and many improved on day ones scores. Making a run was Germany’s Bodo Konieczny with a mid game run of 268,247 and 269 before tailing away towards the end of the block for third place on 1816. Jumping ahead was Latvian Two Hander Daniel Vezis taking second with 1825 and Norway’s Glen Morten Pedersen firing 269 and 289 to take the squad and overall lead in the standings with 1904 and 3564. Second overall was Greece Yianis Stathatos with 3546 and third the German Konieczny with 3543.
Players inside the cut for the top 16 included Denmark, Russia, Latvia, Belgium, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Poland, France, Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Home Nation Reports
England’s Adam Cairns placed highest again and qualified in 8th with 1792and joined by Irishman Alan Bride who had a great second block 1736 to move into the 16 in 14th place.
Sadly going home were Scotland’s Steven Gill in 23rd overall with 3179, Welshman Glenn Robson in 28th on 3102 and Northern Ireland’s Grant Dugan in 32nd with 3001.
Women’s Block 2
The great Dane that is Mai Ginge Jensen showed why she is one to watch out for this year as she raced to the top of the tree with 1732 to end with 3393 and lead the women into the finals. Second overall was Laura Marcham who added 1675 to get 3387 and third was Sweden’s Joline Persson Planefors with 3349. The cut for the top 16 landing on Italy’s Roberta Ferina with 3060 and safely inside the cut were The Netherlands’ Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Scotland, Germany, Israel, Slovakia, France, Czech Republic and Malta.
Home Nation Reports
England’s Laura Marcham held second but Scotland’s Tania Yusah had a bad block but recovered to place 8th with 3201. Sadly leaving the event were Wales Chelsea Walters with 2739 in 30th and Northern Ireland’s Lauren Dugan in 32nd with 2440.
Women’s Last 16
Joline Joline Joline Joliiiiiine, not the Dolly Parton Song but the Super Sweden rising up the first place after another 8 games and a total of 1797 and 5146thanks in part to a final game 268. Second was Denmark’s Mai Ginge Jensen with 5142 and third to England’s Laura Marcham with 5001 and just a pin ahead of fourth placed Scotland’s Tania Yusaf with Denise Blankenzee of the Netherlands in 5th. Also making it were Bulgaria, Russia and France.
Men’s Last 16
A faster pace again might have meant some players were hitting the real big games today as first England’s Adam Cairns hit 299 then Norway’s Glen Morten Pedersen fired a perfect game and ended the block leading with 5444 ahead of Denmark’s Jesper Agerbo in second with 5324 and England’s Cairns in third with 5294 and up from 8th place. 4th went to the Greek man Yiannis Stathatos with 5266 and inside the cut were Germany, Spain, Italy and Lithuania.
End of the road sadly for Irishman Alan Bridge who fought well and ended in 14th place with 4943.
Last 8
Just four games and not much time to break into the top four for some players but not Glenn Morten Pedersen of Norway who hit 904 to take top seed position in the semi finals, Joining him were Denmark’s Jesper Agerbo who added 920 for second, England’s Adam Cairns with 938 and third and finally Spain’s Paco Rodriguez with 268 and 255 at the end to grab fourth with 950.
If one person was going to go past Swede Persson Planefors it was Mai Ginge Jensen which she did with 959 to take the top spot with Joline from Sweden in second with 922, The Netherlands Denise Bankenzee racing up to third with a 925 and England’s Laura Marcham dropping to fourth with 813. Sadly for home nations out went Scotland’s Tania Yusaf in fifth with 787 and 5787 overall total missing out by just 27 pins.
Semi Finals
Down to the last four and Norway’s Glen Morten Pedesen playing Spain’s Paco Rodriguez and Denmark’s Jesper Agerboo against England’s Adam Cairns in a best of three games.
In the Women’s event England’s Laura Marcham, the experienced Mai Ginge Jensen from Denmark and in the other semi final, Sweden’s Joline Persson-Planefors verses The Netherland’s Denise Blankenzee.
Game one and a win for Cairns with a great 237 to Agerbo’s 198 but a loss for Marcham going down 226 to 209 in a close fought game.
Game two and the excitement back home in England could start as Adam booked his place in the final with a 229-197 and 2-0 win and facing Norway’s Glenn Morten Pedersen who won 2-0 against Spaniard Paco Rodriguez.
England hopes were high for Laura but she sadly went down 2-0 to the great Dane Jensen, In the other semi final Sweden defeated The Netherlands 2-1 and Joline Persson Planefors advancing to face Mai Ginge Jensen.
Finals
First up were the women and Jensen vs Persson Planefors and a classic Denmark vs Sweden. Two top names and the Gold could go either way. It edged towards the Dane after game one with a close 225-214 win. It leveled up in the next game though as Joline came back at Mai who hit a couple of splits in a 224-181 win for the Swede.
Game three and both players striking but for a few single pin taps from both including a 5pin from Mai. Scores were still close though as we entered the final frames. Into the tenth and it all hinged on who struck the most. Joline fired a double then Mai struck and left a seven pin and it was all over with a Strike from Joline and Gold for Sweden 238-224 and 2-1. Silver for Denmark and Bronze for England and the Netherlands.
Next up the men and Norway verses England and Glenn Morten Pedersen against Adam Cairns. It was Norway taking the first game 246-214 but the second one got closer, much closer in fact that at the end of the game they could not be split with both rolling 221 and a sudden death roll off. Both Struck and then struck again and this could maybe fgo for some time, It sadly did not as Glenn Morten Struck again and a single pin leave sent the Gold to Norway and Silver to England.
Results
Full results can be found on the Official tournament website here
Event Information
