(ECC) European Championship of Champions 2024

The Slovak Bowling Federation welcomes 35 European nations to the beautiful and picturesque Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, for the European Championships of Champions 2024.

The EBF Technical Delegate and Kegel, which is the official lane maintenance partner of EBF, have decided the length of the oil pattern for the European Championship of Champions 2024 to be 43 feet.

Athletes

In 2023 in Berlin we came away with Gold for Verity Crawley and Bronze for Hadley morgan plus a Mixed Doubles Gold. Great news is the pair are back for 2024. Hadley is joined by the talented Hannah Ailes who last year helped the Team England women to Bronze in the European Womens Championships. Verity is back as defending champion.

Hannah Ailes

The feeling of putting on a team England shirt and playing for your country is like no other. I can’t wait to get out there and compete!

Hadley Morgan

It is always an honour to compete in an England shirt. Verity and I had a great run at ECC last year so I look forward to trying to repeat that this time with Hannah as well!

Verity Crawley

I’m thrilled to be competing in the ECC again this year. It’s always an honour to represent Team England, and the incredible support we received last year makes it even more special. I can’t wait to give it my all for my country!

Reports

As always, it is not easy to medal in this event as you are competing against champions from all the European nations. 2023 was a special year for Team England but not the first time we have found success at ECC. The hope is to continue this success and remind Europe we are a force to watch out for in championships. Countries to watch out for? well all of them.

Day 1

Defending Champion Verity Crawley was first up for Team England on Monday for games 1-8. Splitsville early on and 166 up to 210 before a drop to 152. Cue a frustrated Verity digging deep and finding the shot with 230,231 and 269 and racing up the leaderboard with two to go. 207 and 236 to finish with 1701 and placed Verity in the top three.

Next up on Monday was Team England boss Hadley Morgan and things were going well early on with 211 and 255 before splits came into play and 173. A return to over par with 215 and 217 then splits and recovery for 199 with two to go. Stepping up a gear, Hadley added 238 and 232 for 1740 and in the top 10.

Day 2

She had to wait a day and a half to get started but Hannah soon settled down and despite a first frame open and split open at the end, game one ended with 193. Two splits at the start of game two and a fightback for 181. Game three and four saw a 168 and 166 thanks to a splits, an open, plenty spares but strikes just not flowing yet. Further games of 174 and 190 showed promise then 145 making it a tough block and 174 to end with for 1394.

Day 3

Mixed doubles day at ECC and an event we won in 2023 in Berlin. Our duo of Hadley Morgan and Verity Crawley would get a chance to defend that title in the eightgame shootout to a medal. Squad two saw our pair on the Slovakian lanes and a good start with 451 before a slight dip to 396 then back up to 438. Hadley with 227,193,214 and Verity with 224,203,224. We hit the halfway point with an fine 499 and 255 from Verity and 244 from Hadley.  429 and 425 followed and our duo were leading the squad and pacing for the top spot overall with two to go.

Sweden were chasing down our pair in game seven but Hadley was flying on a 279 pace and Verity chugging along a 240+ pace. Hadley almost going off the sheet for 278, Verity with 224 and another big game with 502 and some 70 pins room between them and the Swedes going into the last game. Hadley on fire now and shooting the front five and Verity supporting with strike spare turkey and they had a determined look about them. Six, seven, eight, the run was still going, verity with a spare and double and pacing 269. Front nine and VC hitting a turkey followed. First one in the tenth then a six count and three for a great 285 and 1901. Verity with a spare and strike for 238 and 1762 and team game of 523 with an overall of 3663 and into the top spot in a strong position with one squad still to go.

Hannah was next up in squad 3 in a make up pair and a 169 start followed by a good 217. A dip with 147 and 151 and improvement in game five with 193 despite three splits but also beginning to find and string some strikes. 204 in the next game and going in the right direction in an overall tough and lower scoring squad. Up then to 215 with a game to go and the splits were back in the last game for 157 and 1453 overall. The squad also confirmed Team England’s Hadley Morgan and Verity Crawley as the Gold winners and retaining the title they won in 2023.

Day 4

Group B eight game blocks on Thursday and just Hannah showing for Team England in the first squad of the day. A great start with 244 then 180, 186 and 172 thanks to the return of two splits.

Up in game five to 205 then 178 with two to go and a tale of single pin spares and few strikes. Back up to 203 with one to go after a closed game, 161 to end with and 1529 with an overall of 4376 for the championships.

Day 5

Group A squads and games 17-24 saw Hadley Morgan first up for Team England on Friday. 199 to start with then up to a fine 248 before a drop to 193 and back up to 228 in the first four games and a bit of a rollercoaster early on. The ride got steady though as Hadley dug deep as always hitting 227, 247 and 236 and with a game to go, things looking a lot more rosey. At the end the best game of the day with 257 and 1835 for a 24 game total of 5476 and leading going into the top 12 round on Saturday.

Verity Crawley was back in the afternoon to complete qualifying and a steady 204 then a big 267 and 224 and the strikes were beginning to flow. 246 after game four and things going well at the halfway point. Then things got tricky with 189 222,199 and 169 for 1720 and 5183 to lead going into the next round of 12.

Day 6

The day started with the round of 12 and another eight games with scores carried forward from the previous round. Verity had some room in the women’s division between her and 5th but Hadley could afford no slip ups in the men’s as it was close all the way down the standings.

252,209,219 and 175 for Verity as she held the top spot at the halfway stage . Hadley opening with 253, 217,189 and 224 and down to fourth with Ireland’s Taylor Williams just seven pins behind in 5th. Hadley then added 224 and 246 going back up the standings to second. Verity holding top with additional games of 183 and 217 with two to go.

Verity finished top with 208 and 198 for a block total of 1661 and overall of 6844. Hadley ending with a fine 264 and 216 for a block of 1833 and overall of 7309 in second place.

Semi Finals

Here we went again, as in 2023 we got two in the semi finals. Same two in 2024, one looking to repeat the win and the other looking to improve on Bronze. Verity would go up against Ireland’s Hannah Masterson and Hadley against Swede Adam Andersson in the best of three matches.

In an established against up and coming match, Ireland’s two handed sensation Hannah Masterson was going to be no walk in the park. Same for Hadley and anytime you play a Swede, expect a challenge.  Hadley was rocking though and front three with Verity hot behind him with a double and spare and taking early leads in the matches. Hadley taking the run to front six then a spare and taking the wind out of Adam Andersson’s sail. Verity not catching the strikes and a small lead over Hannah going into the final frames. Turkey from Verity, split from hannah this one was going England’s way. Hadley adding a double was already 1 up 246-194 and Verity taking the first game 246-186

Game two and a slight lead for Hadley after five frames on a 279 pace and Verity seven pins behind after four frames. Verity then starting a run of strikes to turn the game around but both her and Hadley being pegged back by their opponents going into the final frames and Hadley two pins behind and Verity four up. A split in the tenth and four bagger from Hannah saw the match levelled  212-229. Hadley pushed to the tenth and beaten with a double  217-229.

We knew these would not be easy matches so not a shock to go to three games but pressure was now on. Verity with 105 in the 5th frame and Hannah with 98. Hadley being pushed now by the Swede on a spare and turkey in the opening frames with Hadley Spare, strike, spare and spare. Frame seven and a split for Verity and open frame as Hannah on a turkey hit eight spare and in the lead. A double from the Irish woman in the tenth and it was over for Verity and Bronze medal 183-225. Hadley 28 pins down in the sixth but fighting back with a Turkey but Adam on a double and 18 pin lead in the ninth. Eight count in the tenth for Hadley and Nine for the Swede and another Bronze for Hadley 205-223.


Results

Online scoring is available here

Results will appear on the official website during the event here

Finals

Women

 

Men

Round of 12

Women

Men

Top 12 Qualifiers

Women

Men

Games 17-24

Women A

 

Women B

Men A

Men B

Mixed Doubles

Games 1-8

Women

Group B

Group A

Men

Group B

Group A