Luukas Väänänen Saves His Best For Last To Win English Open 2026

Finland's Luukas Väänänen won the English Open 2026 on Sunday, after an amazing run during the final games at Stroud Bowl in England.

He was sixth with two games left in the final step and finished with 258 and 246 to beat England's Richard Teece by eight pins, 1958 to 1950.

The English Open qualifying ran from 2 to 10 October in six-game squads with re-entries allowed, and 40 players advanced to Sunday's four-step final.

From Step 2 to the Final

Luukas Väänänen qualified 10th with 1413 for six games. Players ranked 7-12 went straight into Step 2, while the top six qualifiers were seeded into Step 3. Every step before the final was four games from scratch.

Väänänen finished ninth of 20 in Step 2 with 901, inside the 12 places that advanced. In Step 3 he bowled the best set of the round, 1006 (258, 214, 255, 279), and entered the eight-player final 28 pins ahead of Richard Teece.

The Late Charge

In Step 4, the finalists bowled four more games with their Step 3 pinfall carried forward. Väänänen opened with 256, but a 192 in the second game dropped him to sixth, 58 pins behind Raymond Teece, who had started the final with back-to-back 279s.

A 258 in the third game moved Väänänen up to third, 38 pins behind Richard Teece with one game to go. In the last game, Richard Teece shot 200 and Raymond Teece 195. Väänänen left an open frame in the seventh, then struck in the eighth, the ninth and all three times in the tenth for 246 and the title.

Brandon Roberts finished third with 1936 after a 245 in the last game. Raymond Teece, who led qualifying with 1529, ended fourth with 1930.

For the win, Väänänen received GBP 4,000 from a fixed prize fund of GBP 27,300.

Full qualifying and step results are available on the official results page.