Carom
COPENHAGEN - The BK Grøndal in Copenhagen is the organizer of the playoffs for the Danish championship for teams. The tournament takes place today and tomorrow. Four teams of four players have seeded after 21 rounds of qualifying matches between eight teams. The championship in the Danish elite league will be played by BK Grøndal, the title holder, Albertslund BK, Randers BK and BK Vejle.
BC Grøndal finished after the qualifying matches with an advantage of twelve points over Albertslund BK, the debutant in the playoffs. The defending champion will be huge favorite with a strong selection for four places: Dion Nelin, Brian Zola Hansen, Tonny Carlsen, Jacob Haack Sörensen and Lars Dunch. BC Grøndal last year took up a team record of 1,750 average.
The format of the playoffs will be a round robin tournament.
The well-known Danish player Allan Lys Jensen made a round-up for Kozoom of the teams which will compete with the champion.
,,The second seeded team, this year’s debutant, Albertslund BK, seems to be the strongest challenger with the former Danish champion and Top 12 player of the world ranking, Brian Knudsen as frontman. But also Allan Schrøder has proved his great value for the team with a lot upsetting results in the past decade for numerous teams. With all respect for their capacity: in the long run they have a chance to upset the favorite, but then they have to play at their best level, especially on the 3rd and 4th table.''
..The third team, Vejle BK, is the only team in the past couple of years that has been able to threaten the undisputed throne of Grøndal by surprisingly winning the title in 2009. Vejle is a very solid team with a great fighting spirit and a good deal of experience.''
,,The last and fourth seeded team, Randers BK, has to hope for a full house and all the luck in the world. The title seems very far away from doing so compared to their competing capacity, but on top of the team they have one of the coming men on the Danish scene as well as internationally. On his best days Thomas Andersen can strip any player, but the rest of the team will need a long and hard struggle to win the necessary games in order to secure match points enough.''
The teams and the players are:
BK Gröndal: Dion Nelin, Brian Zola Hansen, Tonny Carlsen, Jacob Haack Sörensen, Lars Dunch, Hans Laursen.
Albertslund BK: Brian Knudsen, Allan Schröder, Bo Christiansen, Michael Hanse.
Vejle BK: Benny Staalbo, Allan Keith, Michael Toudahl, Claus Föge.
Randers BK: Thomas Andersen, Flemming Gros, Danny Sörensen, Johnny Sögaard.