Talk Tenpin

DBU Youth Cup 2009 Schillerpark, Berlin, Germany
21st – 24th May 2009

Team England YACs: Richard Teece, Rachael Rawlings, Amber Andrews and Raymond Teece

This year the competition had 142 male and 59 female competitors from several European countries including Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Bowling began at 8pm on Friday 22nd with an 8 game block. Richie started with a 159 but got to grips with the Funk lane surface and ended with an impressive 1749, 5th place. Ray started like Richie but could not recover as well and ended up 1525. Rachael started well with a 201 but then fell away with the oil transition and lane change and ended up with 1428, 35th, Amber  started with a 182 and managed to cope a bit better with the lanes and ended up with 1448, 29th place.

Everyone having made the first cut, bowling was to recommence on Saturday at 10 am for the men in 1 to 120th the cut being 1395 and the ladies in 1 to 59th place the cut being 1172. A further 6 games with the pinfall from the first round carried forward. The day was split into three squads Ray and Rachael bowled in the 1.30pm squad and Richie and Amber in the 5pm Squad.

After a talk with his brother, Ray decided to have Richie behind the lanes for support and advice. In typical Team England bulldog spirit Ray took the advice Richie offered and began to tear the lanes apart, more like the Ray we know and love. He bowled 1352, 4th in that Squad taking him into 21st place overall. Rachael bowled 1057 putting her in 39th place. In the 5pm squad the bowlers in 1st to 24th for the Ladies and 1st to 40th place for the men bowled their second round. Richie carried on from the previous day with 1302 putting him in 2nd place overall, Amber bowled her heart out with Ray helping out behind the lanes for techie advice, she bowled an 1186 just missing out on the semi finals by 11 pins overall.

The semi finals on Sunday at 10am had Richie and Ray taking part. Over the 4 game block Ray continued in the same form he found the previous day and bowled a 915 putting him in 11th place overall. Richie bowled an 822 putting him in 3rd place overall.

The Stepladder final was at 12.30am, Richie sat out the first match and the winner Lukas Eigelt was to play him after a nail biting finish 234 to 228. The game was nip and tuck all the way up to the 7th frame when Richie after struggling all weekend with the “glass” approaches delivered a ball a bit to fast and left a 2-10 with no conversion, his opponent spared. It  looked like the writing was on the wall, but Richie was having non of it, he recovered enough to force the German to mark in the tenth to win, he struck out to win 227 to 204. Lukas lost in the next game to Tilo Matthies 237 – 215 and lost to the winner Oliver Rauth  236-170 and  226 – 179.

The Finalists (Richie Teece, back row 3rd from left)

I would like to offer a huge thank you to, Dave and Michelle Godfrey for looking after the Team and managing everything, both off and on the lanes. Their work on behalf of  Y.A.C. bowling in this country has been unending and this was yet another example of their extremely hard work on behalf of under 24yr old bowlers.

Congratulation to Team England Y.A.C:  Richie Teece, Ray  Teece, Amber Andrews and Rachael Rawlings on yet another very successful International Tournament. 

Maurice Teece

Full results can be found at  www.dbu-bowling.com