Zara Glover (pictured left) from England averaged 226.25 on day two qualifying in the Women's European Champions Cup to overtake the lead after 16 out of 24 qualifying games with 3595 pinfall total and an average of 224.95.

The 3-time world champion posted the third-highest women's series on the long oil pattern with 1810 and moved from second place on the short pattern (1785) to the top of the leaderboard.

Long-time Finnish national team member Krista Pöllänen (right) fired the highest 8-game block of the day - both men and women - with 1875 (234.38 average) to leap from fourth to second place with 3571.

Short oil leader Marieke de Jong (left), Netherlands, battled it out with the two experienced players but fell apart after finishing with 162 and 1708. The young Dutch slipped to third place with 3505.

Isabelle Sacco, France, fell one spot to fourth with 3474 despite a 1773 (221.63) series today. Ivonne Gross (right), Austria, made an impressive leapfrog, moving from 18th to fifth place in a span of eight games. Gross finished with 247, 248, 238 and 258 and the second-highest block (1828, 228.50) for 3333 16-game total.

Young Latvian Diana Zavjalova (left) moved from 10th place to sixth with 3305 behind a 1713 series, the fifth-highest in the women's division. Belgian shooting star Katrien Goossens is mere one pin behind in seventh place with 3304.

Rounding out the top 8 is Sue Abela from Malta, who is another three pins behind with 3301.

Just outside the box looking in is World Ranking Masters champion and 3-time European ranking winner Britt Brøndsted, Denmark. With the final 8 qualifying games to go on Friday, the Dane is 39 pins off the pace for the 8th and final qualifying post with 3262 (203.88).


The ECC features the national champions or ranking leaders - one man and one woman per country - of the European Tenpin Bowling Federation member federations plus the defending champions.

All players will bowl three 8-game blocks (a total of 24 games) preliminaries over three days: Block 1 on short oil, Block 2 on long oil and Block 3 on short/long oil (left lane short, right lane long).

The top 8 players after the preliminaries will qualify for the single-elimination final in best-of-three games format. In each round the highest seeded player will bowl the lowest seeded player 2nd highest vs. the 2nd lowest, etc.) based on the preliminaries.

Photos Beat Brauwiler.