3-Cushion
MALLE - The most funny scene took place in the first half of the two matches in the Salpho in Malle, where De Goeie Queue and Mister 100 Lier met in a league match in Belgium. Raymond Ceulemans was some caroms down against Jean Paul de Bruijn and tried to fight back.
Angèle, his wife, tapped gently on the shoulders of Peter, the grandson, and said, in her wonderful Belgian:
,,Wouldn't the bompa (grandpa) better take a break?''
Peter turned and replied with a smile: ,,Do I have to tell grandpa to take a break?''
,,Yes, you're right, that doesn't work'', Angèle responded with a nod.
Then she turned, with that beautiful, mischievous laugh, to us at the table close to the arena.
,,I said him once, in all the years he played on top of the world, during a break in a match for a World championship: would'nt it be better to play more defense?''
He looked at me and I saw him think: ,,But Angèle..., what are you telling me now.''
The most famous grandpa in the world of billiards was not in a great form, Wednesday, although he showed again some high level matches in the past weeks with not far from two average.
On the short billiards in the Salpho, the entire team of Mister 100 was not on its best (8-0 defeat). Only Peter Ceulemans was close to a victory over Frédéric Caudron at the end of the match and Bart Ceulemans (wonderful run of ten) could threaten Jerry Hermans (who ran six, five, six and seven) to the finish.
Peter Ceulemans said, later: ,,I played for a carom in the last innings, just missed and Fred came to the table to finish with seven. So... I had a chance to win.'' The score (50-41 in 21) meant that the match loser had almost two average.
Before the break, Jean Paul de Bruijn beat Raymond Ceulemans without being in trouble (42-31 in 28) and Jerry Hermans defeated Bart Ceulemans 42-36 in 34.
Eddy Merckx had a lightning start against Kurt Ceulemans, who could not get out of the blocks and was promptly put on a large margin. Merckx hit the gap with ten in the 11th inning and won 50-29 in 26.