Carom
The flamboyant speaker is operating this week as a kind of sidekick for the very modest sports official. Benny van Goethem (51) from Sint Niklaas and Freddy Bauwens (59) from Westkerke are the perfect couple in the organization of the Belgian Championships all disciplins. They usually stay both literally and figuratively behind the scenes of the tournament. Benny appears occasionally in the spotlights, to entertain the spectators with his announcement of the matches, usually aligned with a touch of humor, but most of the time with a very serious undertone. Because Benny knows almost everything about results from the past in billiards.
Three years they work together now in the Belgian multi's. ,,I'm not much of a speaking wonder huh'', Freddy says. ,,But I want to say that we have a very good team together.''
Benny: ,,Otherwise we could not do this. These are heavy days, this is a heavy week. We are happy when the tournament starts, but also happy when it's finished.''
Freddy: ,,We should not complain, because if you see what the players, who participate in nearly all matches, have to do. They have a pretty tough job in this week, much more eighter then we.''
Freddy and Benny have to start at ten in the morning, they do their job until midnight. That's the schedule of the sportsdirector and the speaker/entertainer. The quickly calculate that 92 matches are played over eight days. ,,The hardest part of the week is to improvise, for example when the matches are longer than expected. And sometimes you even have to be a kind of a policeman, like Friday, when a few spectators, who had misbehaved themselves in the casino and were a little drunk, entered the billiard room. We have removed them with a gentle hand.'
The desire of Benny van Goethem mainly is that billiards will sell itself better. ,,I would like to see more atmosphere in the billiard rooms. We have the top players, we have great athletes and a sport which is fantastic to watch, in the billiard room and on television or internet. But we have to give the sport a better dress, if I may say it like that. The element of show and ambiance deserves more attention in billiards.''