RP bets make cut in World Cup

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — The Philippines’ Tyrone Ongpauco and Ellen Ramos produced respectable scores Thursday to easily make the cut to 24 men and 24 women in the 41st QubicaAmf Bowling World Cup at the Gladiator Bowling Center here.

The 32-year-old Ongpauco tallied 1226 in his fourth six-game block and slid to 11th from fourth place with a 24-game aggregate of 5184 and a 216 average, while Ramos carded 1257 to jump from 20th to 15th with a 24-game output of 4752 (192 average).

Ramos recovered from a shaky start of 158 by firing a high game of 279. Her other games were 223, 174, 198 and 227.

The remaining contenders in the world’s most prestigious individual kegfest will play eight more games Friday to determine the top eight (in each division) who will figure in the knockout matches.

Canada’s Michael Schmidt and the United States’ Lynda Barnes remained on top of the big field after completing the 24-game qualifying series with scores of 5640 and 5601, respectively.

Schmidt finished ahead of last year’s first runner-up, Norway’s Petter Hansen (5521), Sweden’s Anders Ohman (5368) and Belgium’s Geri Verbruggen (5362).

Barnes came through with another impressive six-game series of 1317 to finish with a sizzling 233.38 average.

Sweden’s Helen Johnsson rolled the day’s best series of 1414 to check in second on 5435, followed by England’s Fiona Banks (5269), Malaysia’s Wendy Chai (5211) and Bahrain’s Nadia Ageel (5141).