Karnataka’s Ajay Singh took the lead with a score of 1195 in the men’s category on the first day of the 19th National Tenpin Bowling Championship at the Star City Bowling Centre here on Monday.

Of the six games played on Monday, Ajay got scores of 234 and 235 in the second and fourth games to average 199.167, just five pin falls short of 200, at the end of the day.

Second behind Ajay was Naren of Karnataka, who garnered up a total of 1186 with an average of 197.667. The going was a little tough for Naren in the first couple of games in the day. However, his form improved subsequently and he got game scores of 210, 224 and 237, which pushed him up to second place.

Former National champion and Commonwealth Championship medallist Shaikh Abdul Hameed finished the day in third place with a score of 1182 and averaged 197. Just like Naren, Shaikh did not have the best of starts on the day. However, after a couple of good games, the Delhi bowler improved his show which also included a couple of four in a rows.

Scores:
Ajay Singh (Kar) 1195 (195, 234, 160, 235, 193, 178) 1; Naren (Kar) 1186 (158, 174, 210, 183, 224, 237) 2; Shaikh Abdul Hameed (Del) 1182 (198, 178, 157, 245, 185, 219) 3; Huneid (Kar) 1162 (168, 173, 203, 232, 226, 160) 4; Raj Mohan (TN) 1160 (217, 198, 183, 179, 192, 191) 5; Madhu (Kar) 1101 (195, 147, 190, 170, 205, 194) 6; Anto (Kar) 1090 (208, 183, 167, 164, 187, 181) 7; Rajesh (Mah) 1076 (160, 173, 167, 213, 202, 161) 8; Dinesh Kumar (TN) 1072 (182, 189, 175, 150, 161, 215) 9; Lester (TN) 1061 (185, 185, 148, 193, 191, 159) 10.