Pinoys dominate inter-agency bowling in Holland

By LOUI GALICIA
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Even if the sole team from the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague beat the other 23 bowling teams, the Pinoys still dominated the overall bowling event in Holland last March 15, reported ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau reported.

The Pinoys bagged most of the awards at the 2008 Inter Agency Bowling Tournament held at the Dolfijn Bowling Center, in the legal capital of the world.

This year proved to be the biggest ever since the annual bowling event for expatriates and staff of international organizations and companies in The Netherlands was held in 2002.

A total of 120 players from 24 bowling teams participated from seventeen different international organizations namely: Eurojust, International Cultural Exchange (ICE), International Criminal Court (ICC), Europol, NATO, Shell, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), ESA/ESTEC, University of the Philippines Alumni Association-NL (UPAA-NL), The Hague Online, AXS Techniek, Viva Voce Reporting Ltd, The Fifth Business, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, European Patent Office, Octagon and the Indonesian Embassy.

Of the 120 players, 18 are Filipino expatriates working for the different international organizations in The Hague.

It was beginner’s luck for the Indonesian embassy players who bagged the first place in the team category with a total of 2,340 pinfalls.

The second place went to the Europol team with total pinfalls of 2,272 and which boasts of three Pinoy players out of five: Leandro Bautista, Lourdes Bautista and Kleng Bautista.

The third place team award went to the ICE Bears with a total of 2,265 pinfalls.

For the individual performers, Giovanni van Gurp, a Pinoy from Eurojust team, felled 567 pins to become the top male bowler.

Incidentally, van Gurp is also the highest scorer overall with an average of 189 pins.

Manuel Tomas of the UPAA-NL, was the second-best male scorer with total pinfalls of 550, averaging 183 pins while Pinoy Patrick Allen of OPCW garnered the third spot with 544 pins and an average of 181 pins.

For the fiery ladies, Pinay Lourdes Bautista was the top female scorer, knocking down a total of 516 pins for an average of 172 points. Irene Heukels of the ICE Bears won the second place with a total of 501 pins, averaging 167 points as another Pinay, Elaine Saguno of ICE Penguins, trailed behind to get the third spot with total pins of 482 for an average of 161 points.

"I did not think that I would land in third place. I’m just playing for the fun. The Filipinos are really good at this so I always root for them," Saguno said.

This is the first year that the Indonesian diplomats joined the games and they sent in their participants at the last minute.

Indonesian player G.E. Rijono Soedarso said that his team didn’t expect to win.

"We just love to play. If we can win, it’s just luck," Soedarso said.

Soedarso also doesn’t think that being Asian or European has anything to do with being a good player.

"No, personally, if I look to the sport of bowling and when I play it in the lane, the most important for me is how to conquer the lane and not to conquer the opponent when I play it," Soedarso explained.

"It’s just a matter of the know how. How much you can conquer the lane. It’s a matter of whether you know or not to play well the lane," Soedarso added.

But for European Marcus Richardson of the ICTY team, Filipino players are tough.

Richardson bowls with and against Pinoys on a separate bowling league held every Tuesday and is very impressed with their prowess.

"Filipino bowlers are amazingly strong. They’re all in the top 2, 3, first place. It’s incredible. They’ve taken all the prizes. We’re really struggling to compete with the Filipinos. It’s inspirational to all of us," Richardson exclaimed.

Even the Dutch bowling attendant who is familiar with the Pinoy players who regularly bowl at the Dolfijn alley can’t help but notice how good they are.

"They’re [Filipinos] very good. I saw them at the league. On Tuesday, they play the league and today with the tournament I saw them playing, they were very good," the attendant said.


SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=112569