3-Cushion
BRUSSELS - The three Belgian players for the World championship in Bolivia showed a successful form test in the Belgian league this week. Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens won their matches. Merckx showed up with a wonderful run of 17 in his match against Roland Forthomme. The three players for the Worlds also were presented to the press. The World championship is from 8 to 12 November in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, next week. The Belgians are the number one ranked in history with 30 gold medals, 9 silver and 14 bronze. That makes 53 in total. The Netherlands is second with 8 gold medals and 27 in total, Spain third with 7 gold medals and 16 in total. Raymond Ceulemans himself won 23 gold medals for Belgium.
At the previous World championship in Bordeaux, in 2016, Eddy Leppens was the best Belgian with a podium spot. In the prerounds, Leppens finished ahead of Jérémy Bury, after which he outplayed Dick Jaspers, Nikos Polychronopoulos and eventually he was beaten by Dani Sánchez in the semi-final in a thrilling 40-39. Caudron already went down in the first round by losing to Barbeillon, Merckx survived the group stage, but was defeated by the Korean Jae-Ho Cho.
At this World championship in Bolivia, the new rules apply, which means that not one but two players of three in the groups advance to the knock-out phase. Merckx plays in his flight with Turk Can Capak and Argentine Carlos Zarate, Caudron with Colombian Huberney Catano and Peruvian Guido Sacco, Leppens with Korean Sung-Won Choi and Jesus Salazar from Bolivia.
Frédéric Caudron played a draw in the this week's Belgian league match with De Goeie Queue against De Witte Molen, but won his own match beating Dirk Weeremans 50-39 in 37. Eddy Merckx (BC Quality) defeated Roland Forthomme 50-37 in 36. Eddy Leppens (Op de Meir) was a way too strong for Marco Janssen, 50-12 in 24.
BC Deurne took more advance on top of the ranking. The champion defeated BC Herentals 6-2. Glenn Hofman was the better of Martin Horn on centre court 50-47 in 26. Jef Philipoom remained unbeaten and sealed victory against Christian Rudolph 50-27 in 31. BC. Deurne is leading now three points ahead of De Goeie Queue, Mister 100 Lier and BC Quality, followed by Biljart Express, that is four points down and BC Herentals five points.
Eddy Merckx and Roland Forthomme played a remarkable, tactical match. Forthomme had a bad start with 13 misses in his first 15 innings. Merckx was not on his best, but attacked with a run of 17 in the 27th inning, which was decisive for the party. Jeffrey Jorissen and Peter De Backer were the other winners for Quality, De Backer in a neck-to-neck race with Kenny Miatton: 50-49 in 54 innings.
Eddy Leppens was the only over-two-average winner this week (2.083), Glenn Hofman (1.923) and Jean Paul de Bruijn (1.851) were close to it. Mister 100 came back from Kortrijk with a 5-3 victory. Dave Christiani closed a big gap in his match aginst Peter Ceulemans (45-28) with a run of 11 and also finished with 8 in the equalizer. Raymond Ceulemans, after a tough week as a guest at the World Cup in La Baule and an exhausting, nightly trip back home, won on his routine against Martin Ravesteyn (42-32 in 34) and Kurt Ceulemans bested Ronny Brants in a marathon match (up to 12.30 in the night) 50-37 in 49.
Glenn Hofman and Martin Horn both shone with a 12 run in their mutual match. Michel Mens drew against Ludo Dielis with a run of five. Biljart Express was the better of Eeklose 6-2.
The top of the ranking:
1 BC Deurne 7-13
2 De Goeie Queue, Mister 100 and BC Quality 7-10
5 Biljart Express 7-9.
Mister 100 2 and KBC Eeklose gathered only one point out of seven and are far behind the bunch.