Well… that is that! And what a tournament it turned out to be.
The 34th Malta Open Tenpin Bowling Championships ended on a massive high, filled with strikes, spares, and a sea of smiling faces. The finals kicked off around 6 PM last Sunday, May 17th, featuring a straightforward, high-stakes format: a 2-game knockout for total pinfall.
The Finalists: 🇩🇪 Zeno Janssen (Germany) vs. 🇸🇰 Matus Hrusovsky (Slovakia)
Both bowlers earned a direct ticket to Final Stage 3 by dominating the qualifying rounds and finishing in the top 6. Zeno claimed the top spot with a whopping 3,012 total pinfall over 12 games (a staggering 251 average). Matus qualified in 3rd with a 2,857 total—averaging an incredible 238 just to sit in third place. Wow.
Here is how the drama unfolded on Sunday:
Final Stage 3
- Zeno started strong, defeating Romania’s Darian Maleca 514 – 421.
- Matus faced a fierce challenge from local youth bowler Nicolai Mallia, narrowly pipping him by just 6 pins to finish 437 – 431.
Final Stage 4
- Zeno faced Matus’ brother, Simon Hrusovsky, in an absolute nail-biter. Zeno squeaked through 428 – 426 (Game 1: 226-218 | Game 2: 202-208), though he seemed to be losing a bit of his cutting edge.
- Matus set the tone early against Belgium’s Jonas Maes, cruising to a 440 – 399 victory thanks to a powerhouse 247 opening game.
Final Stage 5 (The Semi-Finals)
The semi-finals delivered pure theatre—huge scores and heavy pressure.
- Zeno found his stride against Mark Jacobs (Netherlands), firing two high-rolling games of 268 and 279 for an incredible 547 total. Mark started strong with a 256 but couldn’t match Zeno’s relentless striking in game two, finishing with a 469 total.
- Matus took on Italy’s Andrea Mangiacotti in another thriller that kept the crowd guessing. Matus opened with a massive 278 against Andrea’s respectable 231. The second game was a dogfight, with Matus edging it out by just 7 pins (234-227) to finish 512 – 458.
The Grand Finale
Two young powerhouses, both making their maiden appearance at the Malta Open, charged through the brackets with aplomb to set up a dream final.
- Game 1: A dead heat. Zeno fired a 237, but Matus answered with a 245.
- Game 2: With his eyes locked on the trophy, Matus refused to back down. He fired a spectacular 269 against Zeno’s 212.
With a total score of 514 – 449, Matus Hrusovsky clinched the trophy in style to become the 34th Malta Open Champion! Huge congratulations to both bowlers for an inspiring display of sportsmanship and talent.
Behind the Scenes 💻
While I watched the excitement unfold from the sidelines, I was actually glued to the control desk—managing scores and setting lane assignments for the next stages.
Honestly, I’m incredibly proud of how smoothly everything went. For the 2025 event, I used a heavily manual Excel file which I developed specifically for the 2025 event. For 2026 we fell back onto this manual excel file but also used a fully automated Google Sheets scoring system tailored to the unique Malta Open format which I had the crazy idea to build back in February.
With Gemini acting as my co-developer, we built the system from scratch. Because we didn’t have live test data beforehand, we ran both the old manual system and the new automated one side-by-side during the tournament. It passed with flying colors!
Even better, the new Google Sheets backend allowed me to launch a brand-new feature this year: a live mobile/online scoring app built via Base44.
You can check out the app and review all the tournament data here (scores will remain live!):
🔗 https://preview–malta-bowl-live.base44.app
Created with PressDash — Base44 App
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