BRIAN VOSS WINS THE 2012 COLUMBIA 300 IRISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

22th January 2012

Brian Voss won the tournament convincingly in the end by 182 pins, exclusively rolling the Raging Bull and Raging bull Charged balls. He occupied either 1st or 2nd spot throughout each round of the entire high-scoring tournament.

After a first round, first block of 191 259 248 257, BV sat 8th. But a fantastic 2nd block of 238 300 236 260 using the Raging Bull Charged, saw him move to second, after an incredible 2nd block of 298 258 258 300 (1114), saw local bowler Paul Stott proceed to round two in 1st place.

A fantastic first round and re-entry squad for the Seismic Staff saw 8 players make Round 2 and the Men's leaderboard of 122 players look like this ..

2nd - Brian Voss (USA) - 248.63
3rd - Matt Hann (England) - 247.13
6th - Peter Lilburn (Northern Ireland) - 240.50
17th - Billy Nimick (Northern Ireland) - 225.50
18th - Grant Dugan (Northern Ireland) - 225.13
29th - Kenny Donnelly (Northern Ireland) - 221.25
30th - Renaud Honhon (Belgium) - 220.38
40th - Ryan Press (Northern Ireland) - 218.75

Round 2 saw BV maintain his average with a block of 267 226 235 265 still rolling the Charged. An excellent set of 227 300 234 258 saw Billy Nimick throw the 2nd of 7 perfect games during the weekend, using his Aftermath Pearl, which moved him to 6th. Honhon and Donnelly missed out on round 3 but 6 Seismic Staff proceeded.

Another good round gave them 1st (Voss), 2nd (Hann), 5th (Nimick) and 11th (Press). Ryan made a change to the Epicenter after game 1 and bowled a set of 219 235 279 278 as he stealthily made his way into the last 16.

Grant Dugan was given another chance (and guaranteed cash) by a no show by one of the top 16 qualifiers, and took advantage of this to move from 21st to 15th. Ryan had a poor first game and rallied, but sadly missed the Round Robin Round cut by 10 pins in 9th place. Voss had a poor round by his high standards (+41 for 4) and actually relinquished the lead to Matt Hann who bowled a great set of 247 277 229 288 to lead. It looked like the powerful English bowler had the momentum to pull off a shock result!

So to the Round Robin final and a change of tactics from Brian Voss that saw him dominate the matchplay round.

Needing to turn around a 63 pin deficit, BV made a change to his Raging Bull and brought the heat playing a daring tight line through other bowlers tracks, that he hadn't used in the previous 20 games.

His decision paid off, and with a winning matchplay record and strong average for the round, he cruised to victory after taking a 100+ pin cushion into the final game.

Matt eventually finished 4th and Billy 5th as only a few pins separated the 3rd-5th positions, to cap of a thoroughly satisfying tournament for Team Seismic!

Our congratulations to BV (and the rest of the staff), we wish him well as he continues to tour Europe playing tournaments and coaching .. we hope he has further success rolling Seismic equipment!