Carom
RANST - Whether the form is still good at the end of a long season? There is no doubt about, Eddy Leppens showed in the final of the Op de Meir tournament in Ranst. The Belgian defeated Barry van Beers with a magnificent score: 60-21 in seventeen innings, finishing 3.529 average.
The Op de Meir tournament is a traditional meeting with sixty players at the end of the season. The BC Op de Meir is a club with 59 members, Wim Demuynck is the president, Marc Verhagen the sports director. Marc Verhaegen and Ann are the owners of the cafe in Ranst close to Lier.
BC Op de Meir, tells us the history, was founded in 1930, the originally name of the club was 'Boef er op'. Among the members are players such as Andy de Bondt and Rudy de Laet.
The annual tournament was played with well-known three-cushion players such as Raymond, Peter and Kurt Ceulemans, Jef Philipoom, Eddy Leppens, Barry van Beers, Wim van Cromvoirt and others.
They were launched in groups of three, from which the winners again were divided into groups of three players. Eddy Leppens first survived a group with Wim van Cromvoirt (win in 30 innings) and Raymond Ceulemans (draw in 45 innings).
In the final group Leppens defeated Frank de Groof in 32 innings and in a sterling performance Barry van Beers in seventeen innings.
The superb winner made the gap with successive runs of eleven and five in the starting innings. In the last two innings, he finished the match with runs of five and fourteen. His overall average was 1.780.
,,I played in the final one of my best matches ever, but you have to be a little lucky with the positions'', Leppens said. ,,I think it will be interesting to watch the Juanjo Trilles Challenge this week and I wonder if these world class players also manage to do a session of sixty caroms in seventeen innings.''
For Leppens it's now the season end. ,,I take a break and then I'm leaving for New York late July, where I play the former Sang Lee tournament. As far as I've heard, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Glenn Hoffman will be there as well. After New York I travel to Colombia for a demonstration with Semih Sayginer, Tayfun Tasdemir and Dani Sánchez.''