8th March, Tokyo: Eighth-seed, Jeon Eun-Hee of Korea, clinched the DHC Cup Girls International Bowling Championship crown in a nerve-wrecking tie breaker to defeat topseed, CHerie Tan of SIngapore.

Jeon Eun-Hee steamrolled past her opponents after winning her first shootout match against fifth seed, Missy Bellinder (USA-232), sixth-seed Sharon Koh (MAS-167) and seventh-seed Mayumi Yoshida (JPBA-201) with 239.

One-by-one, the Korean first edged fourth-seed Liz Jonson of USA with a 216-208 victory and in her next match, triumphed over third-seed and southpaw, Hisano Igarashi of JPBA 237-226 to continue to climb up the ladder.

Eun-Hee marched on to dispose off second-seed Yuuko Nakatani of JPBA with a remarkable 255-211 win. In the title match, topseed Cherie Tam looked set to win the title after the fifth frame with a double strike, spare and double strike; while Eun-Hee had a open frame.

On the sixth frame, Cherie had an unlucky split while Eun-Hee bounced back with a double strike to close the gap. Cherie made two more spares but on the penultimate frame, she had a seemingly perfect pocket but left a corner pin 7 and then missed it.

This gave the Korean a great opportunity to overtake the Singaporean on the last frame but Eun-Hee made the worst release of the entire telecast games; the ball going right into the head pin and left a 3-4-6-7-10 split and failed to spare.

In Cherie's final frame, she delivered a solid pocket ball but left a stubborn pin 7 standing. She needed to spare it for the title but to the amazement of the capacity crowd, she missed it again to tie the score at 179.

In a one ball tie-breaker, Cherie delivered a solid pocket and looked like a 7-10 standing but finally pin 7 dropped for a 9 count. Eun-Hee stepped up and released a solid pocket with a pin 10 standing forcing another tie breaker.

Cherie only managed to get a 7 count while Eun-Hee put up another solid pocket for a 9 count which clinched her the title. The champion won a whopping 3 million Japanese yen (approx. US$30,000) while Cherie settled for 1.5 million yen.

Hisano Igarashi and Yuka Tsuchiya received 300,000 yen each for scoring the perfect games during the qualifying rounds. Detailed scores: Stepladder Finals and Positions 5 - 8 Shootout.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng, MTBC.

7th March, Tokyo: It was a field day for the southpaws as Cherie Tan of Singapore and Malaysia's Sharon Koh consolidated their position as the top 2 seed after the second block of 6 games in the DHC Cup 2009 at Shinagawa Bowling Centre, Tokyo, Japan this afternoon.

After finishing sixth on 1396 first block, the 2008 Singapore Open champion, Cherie Tan made a quantum leap as she scored an identical 763 total in her third and fourth series for a gallant 1526 pinfalls of 6 games total.

Cherie Tan was in a devastating form, as she effortlessly scorched the lanes with lines of 237, 279, 247, 269, 215 and 279 to justify her pole position into the third Block. Malaysia's Sharon Koh maintained her rhythm to position herself well on track, reeling the lines of 246, 182, 225, 246, 234 and 204 to keep pace in second position with 2760 total.

Liz Johnson of USA, who was trailed Sharon by 1 pin in the first block, also displayed consistent performance by registering 221, 214, 238, 226, 217 and 203 for a combined total of 2741 but dropped to third place.

Japan's best performer, Yuuko Nakatani of JPBA totaled 2727 to take up fourth position while Korea's best finisher was Cha In-Hwa finishing just 5 pins further away with 2722. Perfect gamer, Kelly Kulick of USA struggled to find her rythmn ending down the field in 26th position.

Malaysia's other southpaw, Zatil Iman sustained her creditable 12th placing with 1294 in the second block for a combined 2655 total. Youngster Siti Safiyah staged a late recovery but was futile to miss the cut by a slim 3 pins margin.

Shalin Zulkifli slipped further down to 44th position as she could not lift her game. Likewise, Zandra Aziela lost her focus in her game approach and nose-dived down to 70th position with 2383 total pin-falls followed by Choy Poh Lai (88th-2416) and Sin Li Jane (88th-2190).

The third block of 6 games qualifying round is scheduled to start at 9:30am local time on Sunday March 8 where the field will be cut to the top 32 finishers where they will play the final 6 games to narrow down to the top 8 who will advance into the knockout stage. Detailed scores: Qualifying 2ndBlk.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng, MTBC.

6th March, Tokyo: Malaysia's southpaw, Sharon Koh leads the pack of 90 professional and amatuer bowlers after the first block of 6 games in the DHC Cup Girls International Bowling Championship 2009 at Shinagawa Bowling Centre, Tokyo, Japan this morning.

Despite the cool morning environment, Sharon was on a hot streak, reeling the lines of 259, 237 and 222 for a 718 series for a fourth place finish after 3 games. Sharon sustained her momentum with lines of 228, 187 and stormed home with 11 consecutive strikes for a 290 game to end the series on 705.

Her combined effort of 1423 total pinfalls edged out leading contender, Liz Johnson of USA by a mere pin.

After a commendable performance on her first series of 694 total, Liz Johnson shifted into a higher gear to to post two identical 245's in the fourth and fifth games to lead the field. Liz finished her sixth game on 238 for a combined total of 1422 pinfalls.

Yuuko Nakatani of Japan PBA registered scorelines of 226, 248, 227, 212, 268 and 227 for a 1408 aggregate for a third place finish while two Koreans, Jeon Eun-Hee and Nam Bo-Ra rounded uo the top 5 with 1408 and 1402 respectively.

Meanwhile, Kelly Kulick of USA became the first bowler to hit the magical score of 300 in her fourth game and was handsomely rewarded with 300,000 yen.

Another Malaysian southpaw, Zatil Iman made a second half recovery to finish a creditable 12th placing with lines of 213, 192, 248, 258, 224 and 226 and a combined 1361 total. Shalin Zulkifli and Zandra Aziela started on a promising note in the first series posting 707 and 728 subtotal respectively.

However, both bowlers faded to lower rung with Shalin managing only 598 to total 1305 to finish 26th placing while Zandra Aziela amassed 575 to total 1303 and ended up in 27th placing. Other Malaysian women were Siti Safiyah (44th-1262), Choy Poh Lai (76th-1147) and newcomer, Sin Li Jane (89th-1100).

The second block of 6 games started at 3:30pm local time and is expected to finish by 7:00pm local time. Detailed scores: Qualifying 1stBlk.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng, MTBC.

6th March, Tokyo: The Malaysian national women are ready for the challenge in their first international assignment this year when they take part in the DHC Cup 2009 which will kick off tomorrow morning at the 40 lanes Shinagawa Bowling Centre.

Team Malaysia arrived safely at Narita International Airport, Tokyo yesterday morning and was welcomed by Tomokatsu Yamashita, a member of the Japan Bowling National team. Boarded the Airport limousine, the team headed for their official hotel, Prince Hotel, Shinagawa.

Before they could check into the hotel, the team walked to the bowling centre to have their bowling equipment registered and weighed in. Later that afternoon the teamhad an opportunity to test the lanes during the unofficial practice under the watchful eyes of Holloway Cheah.

Early today, Team Malaysia attended the Team Managers' and bowlers' meeting in the hotel. Mr. Akagi Kyohei, President of Japan Bowling Congress welcomed the participants. A total of 90 professional and amatuer bowlers from ten countries were present at the meeting.

The official practice session for the bowlers was held at the 40 lanes Shinagawa Bowling Centre, situated at the annex building of the hotel. Opening Ceremony will be held on Saturday followed by the competition proper at 10:00am.

The bowlers will bowl in the first block of six games on freshly oiled lanes and adjourn for lunch break. The second block of another six games will resume without lane maintenance. At the end of 12 games aggregate, the top 32 bowlers shall proceed to the semifinals on Sunday March 8th 2009 at 9:30am.

In the semifinals, they will bowl another block of six games after which the top 8 bowlers based on the 18 games total pinfall will proceed to the TV Finals shoot-out, where bowlers ranked fifth to the eighth will bowl one game to advance as fifth seed.

The TV Stepladder Finals will see the fifth-seed matched up against the fourth seed; winner then meet third-seed; winner meet second-seed and finally against the topseed for the title. The champion will walk away with 3,000,000 Japanese yen (RM115,500); first runnerup prize is worth 1,500,000 yen (RM57,750) and second runnerup prize worth 800,000 yen (RM30,800).

The Perfect Game award carries 300,000 yen (RM11,550) while the Perfect Game achieved during TV Finals is worth 30,000,000 yen (RM1.155 million).

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng, MTBC.