Ten years after he won the event, Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno, undoubtedly the greatest bowler of all-time, will compete in the 2009 Party Poker.com World Tenpin Masters at the Metrodome in Barnsley , England on April 18 and 19.

Defending champion Guy Caminsky of South Africa will be back to defend his title which he won for the first time in 2008 as he came from behind to defeat American Chris Barnes 526-517 in a memorable final.

Luke Riches of Matchroom Sports says “this year it will be tougher than ever before to win”

Under the format only eight players will compete, initially in two groups of four players each. After a round robin only the top two players will advance to the semi final stage after which the two winners will clash in the final..

Besides Nepomuceno who won the event in 1999, three other former champions are also in the line-up including last year’s winner Caminsky, 2007 winner Jason Belmonte of Australia and 2006 champion Chris Barnes of the United States.

A spokesman for Matchroom Sport said: “In previous years players have traveled from all over the world and sometimes they would only play one single two-game match but now they have a chance to play at least three. With only eight players in the 2009

PartyPoker.com World Tenpin Masters, the standard will obviously be incredibly high.

The spokesman added “that should lead to some fantastic bowling and competitive matches which will be great for the packed crowd and great for television.”

Group I where all players are subject to contract includes Nepomuceno, Dom Barrett (England), Guy Caminsky (South Africa) and Osku Palermaa (Finland) while Group 2 is made up of Chris Barnes (USA), Jason Belmonte (Australia), Wu Sui Hong (Hong Kong) and Matt Chamberlain (UK) PTBC Winner

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