3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - Two great French players, of whom one belongs to the top ten in the world, a Belgian with a fantastic reputation in three cushion and other disciplins and an Italian who in his long career always was one of the starplayers in the world has won for the eighth time in a row the European Cup for club teams. Agipi took the final win in his own arena against FC Porto in a match witch was stopped on a 6-0 score.
Frederic Caudron was the star dancer at the champion gala in Schiltigheim with a 2.354 (!!!) overall average and a brilliant victory against Dick Jaspers (40-14 in 12 innings) in the final match with runs of eleven and twelve. Jérémy Bury and Christoph Roux (run of thirteen in his last match) won their duels before the break, Marco Zanetti went up to 25-24 in 11 innings with Dani Sánchez, but the match result was no longer important when Caudron lifted the score to 6-0.
The joy in the Agipi camp, on the faces of the players, Agipi director Claude Fath and the home crowd, was intense like in previous years of success. ,,Marchons, marchons'', sang the French spectators during the ceremony the chorus of the national anthem. The winners indeed showed themselves unstoppable in their triumphal march towards the cup.
The eighth jewel on the European crown almost bring the opponents to despair. FC Porto, Caseta Nova and Clichy Montmartre: they all tried to break the hegemony in recent years, but Agipi demonstrated with its high class level, its team spirit and character to be the best team in the world.
The question was therefore at the end: is this team to defeat in the upcoming years or will Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti, Jérémy Bury and Jean Christoph Roux will have fingers short after two more years to portray the success of the dreamteam?
Frédéric Caudron and Marco Zanetti both were absolute world class in this tournament. Jérémy Bury made one misstep against Jérôme Barbeillon and Jean Christoph Roux had a poor start, but excelled in his last match against Rui Costa, in which he closed a backlog with a thirteen run and decided the match with a five at the end.
As the spider paves his way with its eight legs, as the chess player shows his virtuosity on the board with eight times eight fields, as the fastest, officially recognized rowing boat skims over the water with eight people: the Agipi team may write the figure 'EIGHT' now in gold letters in the international billiard anals. It is a successful serie that may be never will be improved.
Frédéric Caudron was not only the undisputed starplayer on the final day, he also showed in his match against Dick Jaspers that he will start as the big favorite to win the Juanjo Trilles Challenge later this month, where the world's number one and the world champion Dick Jaspers play a match over six hundred caroms for 10.000 euros for the winner.
The Belgian gave his rival a sneak preview in the match which was decisive for the European Cup victory. Jaspers and Caudron were in balance until 14-15 in seven innings, then Caudron attacked with eleven in the eighth inning to 14-26 and in the eleventh inning with twelve to 14-39. That attack paralysed Jaspers in his temper to score. May be it was one of the most sensitive defeats in the glorious career of the Dutch.
The final ranking in the Eurocup tournament:
1 Agipi, 20 match points, 1.697 average, run 13.
2 FC Porto, 20-1.360-10
3 Andernos, 10-1.328-18
4 Clichy Montmartre, 10-1.319-12
5 Gruner Tisch Buer, 2-0.895-9
6 BC Deurne, 4-1.147-8.