Muscat, Swift win first Platinum Cup

This year’s Platinum Cup saw 45 players (30 men and 15 women) taking part in the 12 game qualifiers which saw a very tight competition in both female and male categories.

The ladies section saw Cynthia Frendo Duca leading from the start to qualify in first place ahead of national champion Sue Abela and Tiziana Carannante. Fifteen-year-old Kathryn Fenech made it to fourth place, ahead of Melissa Swift and Marthese Cossai.

Frendo Duca kept her form in the round robin to win all five of her direct clashes, to stay ahead of Abela who got four out of five wins.

Swift managed to climb to third and face Abela in the semi-final.

Swift managed to get the three strikes in a row needed in the final frame to beat Abela by one pin, and then faced Frendo Duca in the final.

Swift clearly had the wind in her sails as she outplayed her opponent 213-170 to force a decider.

Both players struggled with their nerves, and in the end Swift beat the unlucky Frendo Duca by 10 pins to end up a worthy first time Platinum Cup winner.

Under 16 champion Muscat finished first in the men’s section, with a 213 average, that included a brilliant first set of six games of 1,387, which is the

new Under 19 record in a six-game series.

National champion Mauro Anastasi qualified in second place, just ahead of Philip Gruppetta, Miguel Xuereb, Kenneth Arpa and Luke Burke.

Anastasi put his foot down in the round robin with a 224.8 average that gave him four wins and the lead, followed by Gruppetta who also overtook Muscat. 

Tables were turned however as Muscat beat Gruppetta in a close semi-final, to face Anastasi. 

Game One went to the young Muscat, 246-207.

The two OkMalta.com team mates then faced each other in the deciding last game, and Muscat edged out Anastasi to claim victory as the youngest bowler to have ever won the Platinum Cup.