MATCHROOM Sport are delighted to announce the 2010 Premier League Bowls will be heading to Cyprus where it will take place over three days at the superb Athena Beach Hotel in Paphos.

Running from Tuesday, September 21 to Thursday, September 23, the Premier League will take place on an outdoor rink for the first time.

The field features a top class line-up of champions of World Bowls Tour events including;
Paul Foster – defending Premier League Champion and Scottish Open Champion
Greg Harlow – World Champion
Darren Burnett – Welsh Open Champion
Alex Marshall – Five times former World Champion
Mervyn King – 2009 World Matchplay Champion

The field is completed by the winner of next month’s 2010 World Matchplay, or a wild card if one of the above players wins.

Following last year’s successful introduction of a step-ladder final, the format for 2010 stays the same. All matches are played over two sets of five ends each and there is a point for each set won, with each player contesting five matches in total.

The finals are all over the same format with a one end tie break in operation to decide drawn games. The step-ladder final involves the fourth and third finishing players in the league playing each other with the winner playing the second placed bowler. The winner of that match then plays the top finishing player to determine the champion.

Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn said: "This marks a major departure for the Premier League Bowls and we are all very excited to be going to Cyprus and the Athena Beach Hotel.

"The fact that the event is taking place outdoors in the sun rather than under TV lights will make this a very different experience to previous years.

"The standard of bowls though will be as high as ever with some of the best players in the world taking part and Matchroom Sport will be bringing our usual high spec TV production to the event."

The event is being run in tandem with the World Bowls Tour, and will contain many of the features that made it such a success during its first two years at the Potters Leisure Resort including the complete colour coordination of all the players and the ‘Power Play’ concept that can see matches swing in seconds.

Matchroom Sport will be producing 18 one hour programmes for broadcast on Sky Sports as well as selected stations around the world.

Aristos Diomedous, the General Manager of the Athena Beach Hotel said, ‘We are delighted to be hosting such a prestigious bowls event in our hotel and look forward to working with Matchroom Sport, Sky TV and the world’s top players to make this a memorable event for Cyprus.

"‘Constantinou Bros Hotels’ dedication to the sport of bowls and our commitment to building world class bowls facilities has elevated Cyprus to an internationally recognised bowls venue."

The prize fund is set at £33,000 with £10,000 going to the eventual champion.

For more about the Athena Beach Hotel, click on the following link www.athena-cbh.com/home.php

Date posted: May 21, 2010

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