1-Cushion
MALLE - The best allround billiard player in the world has added another prestigious title to his palmares. In the Kozoom Challenge, a marathon over 1500 points in 1-cushion, Frédéric Caudron beat another great specialist in this discipline, Dutchman Jean Paul de Bruijn. The margin was considerable: 1500-1251 in 66 innings.
The 46-year old magician from Belgium, also the world's number one in 3-cushion, demonstrated in the three day battle with his Dutch rival that he is the world's best in 1-cushion as well. His supremacy in the challenge was overwhelming for quite some time, his game plan, mental strength and execution of all the technical difficulties of the discipline proved too much for Jean Paul de Bruijn, who is too often dependant on his high runs.
The two top players in this game entertained the crowd in Salpho and the ones watching at home on Kozoom with technical and tactical wizardry. It made up for the lack of tension, because Caudron took an early lead and really was never in any danger. The course of the match was set by the Belgian phenom's scoring pace in almost all of the sessions, with the exception of the last two, when de Bruijn mounted an impressive comeback. In the first six sessions however, the lead had been extended by Caudron, when he made his 150 points in just three and four innings, and it was never a race from that point on.
The Belgian made three runs over 100 to highlight his win, and when de Bruijn came alive, he invariably countered. When Caudron went from 150 - 19 (first) to 300 - 104 (second), 600 - 367, (fourth), 750 - 444 (fifth session), the Challenge was as good as over. The master of all weapons showed that he never shies away from attack, takes risks, and can build high runs from any starting position. Jean Paul de Bruijn could do so too, but not as often. Only once in the first two days did he show his impressive class when he ran 135. It closed the gap somewhat, from a margin of 398 to a margin of 322, after Caudron had also played the 48th inning.
Caudron took it as a wake-up call and once again opened the throttle. The maestro later said that he loves to play his heart out in these marathons. His versatility guarantees results. Better than Jean Paul de Bruijn it seems, is he able to average over 20 when covering these distances. The Dutchman was not on top of his game these three days, did not "feel" the table as well as he wanted, and was mentally unable to make up for his bad start and challenge Caudron.
The beauty of De Bruijn's play in this discipline, once has the balls close and can build his runs with those precision gathers, showed his best only on the final day. He acknowledged the superiority of his opponent, and mostly explained his loss by saying he didn't feel at home on the table. ,,I only found my rhythm late on the second day'', he said later. He gradually improved his average, and even produced a fantastic final day, when he scored two fine runs of 75 and 70 back to back.
It took the score to 1350-1058 (margin 292) in Caudron's advantage, but De Bruijn's awakening came too late and could not light up the contest. When the Dutchman had lost all the tension and added a beautiful 130 and 52 to his total, the duel in Malle ended on a quality note. De Bruijn even scored 661 points in the last 19 innings (34.78 average). The final win however was never in doubt: Caudron finished with 43 and made the final score 1500 - 1251.
The averages: Caudron 22.73, de Bruijn 18.95. High runs: Caudron 155, De Bruijn 135.
The scores in the Challenge:
1st set: 150-19 in 4
2nd set: 150-85 in 7
3rd set: 150-141 in 19
4th set: 150-41 in 7
5th set: 150-77 in 3
6th set: 150-146 in 7
7th set: 150-138 in 3
8th set: 150-88 in 5
9th set: 150-242 in 6
10th set: 150-195 in 5.
