There is positive news in the world of Irish tenpin bowling, with the announcement that this year's Irish Open Championships will be run in association with Ebonite.
The affiliation with one of the world's biggest bowling companies adds great weight to the tournament, which in truth has been faltering a little over the past few years.
There are some notable changes for next January's event. Firstly, €2,500 has been added to the prize fund. There will now be €17,500 to play for, with the top prize of €3,500 for men and €1,200 for women.
There have also been some changes to the format of the tournament. firstly, the tournament has returned to its old four-day schedule, with one squad on the Thursday evening, January 19th.
Squads on the Friday, January 20th, will begin at 08.30 and will continue until 22.45 pm. Saturday, January 21st, will see bowling commence at 08.00 am and continue until 23.30 pm.
The final day, Sunday January 22nd, will see the top 16 in both the men and women's sections bowl at 08.30 am, with the top 8 round robin finals at 11.00 am. The prize presentation will take place at 13.30 pm.
The most notable change in the format is the addition of a re-entry squad on the saturday morning. This will give any players who are unhappy with their original eight game qualifying set a second chance to make the second round.
Other changes include squad winner's qualifying automatically for the second round. In the men's section, the top two players from Squad A and Squad B will qualify for the top 64, with the other 60 spots being determined from the rest of the field on pinfall.
In the women's section, the top two players from Squad A and Squad B will qualify for the top-24 second round, with the other 20 spots again being determined between the rest of the field.
As well as the changes in the format, the tournament will also return to its old style in terms of lane conditioning. For the first time since the tournament was a European ranking event in the middle of the last decade, lane maintenance will occur after every squad, meaning that every player will play on the same condition twice, and no player can gain an adavantage by playing first or second oil before other squads.
The tournament's association with Ebonite has also brought another positive change. If any player bowls a 300 game with any ball manufactured by Ebonite (including Ebonite, Track and Hammer or Columbia 300 balls) that player will gain free entry into the Irish Open Championships in 2013.
The Irish Open has always been the showcase event in Irish Bowling, and with these changes for 2012 the organisers hope that the interest levels will return to the high level of the middle of the last decade. Bowltalk can only reiterate these hopes, and the changes can only be seen as a positive step for the tournament.
The tournamet runs from January 19th to January 22nd 2012 and entry formas are out now. To enter the tournament, print your entry form from www.tenpin-ireland.com, drop into Leisureplex Stillorgan or contact the organisers, either by email to Sean Kennedy at sean@leisureplex.ie or by phone at +353 86 824 822.
The entry fee for the tournament is €110, while the re-entry fee is €50. Alternatively, you can pre-book both your entry and re-entry for the cut price of €140.
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