19-year-old Matthew Magro wins prestigious Masters

Matthew Magro maintained his bright start to the 2021 season when he won the prestigious Masters event at the Eden Super Bowl.

Magro qualified directly into the final stages as third seed together with national champion Mauro Anastasi, last year’s Masters winner Mark Spiteri and under 16 Champion Nicholas Muscat.

The four of them were joined by Dennis Mercieca, Kayden Laganà, Sara Xuereb, Neil Sullivan, Melissa Swift and Rankin Camilleri who made it through the final stages through the first two qualifying rounds.

These 10 players needed to play a further five games, to determine the top 6 who would play in the finals. Magro finished in first place with a 206.8 average ahead of Anastasi, with 13-year-old Lagana’ in third.  Swift ended in fourth followed by Spiteri and Muscat.

The first, fourth and sixth played against each other in one group, while second, third and fifth were in the second group.

The low person after each game would be eliminated. Group 1 saw Muscat being eliminated first, while in the second game, Magro beat Swift 203-181.   Group 2 saw Anastasi losing out after game 1, with the second game being a nail biter between Lagana’ and Spiteri. Lagana’ took the lead at the end, but a cruel 7-10 split for Lagana’ on what looked like a great last shot meant Spiteri progressed to the finals by 1 pin, 213-212.

The one game final between Magro and Spiteri was even closer.

Spiteri took a sizeable lead, only to be reeled in by a great final stretch of strikes by Magro to force Spiteri to get nine pins in the last frame.

Spiteri first hit an eight and then incredibly missed the two pins to end up in a 225-225 draw with Magro, thus needing a two-frame roll off to determine the winner.

Spiteri was first up, but opened the door to Magro with an open frame. Then he took full advantage to hammer in the final strike and beat Spiteri by one pin over these two frames.

With this win, Magro continues his strong start to 2021, after also qualifying to represent team Malta in the upcoming Mediterranean Championships with Laganà, Sue Abela and Cynthia Frendo Duca.