Foretaste in Agipi arena without a winner

SCHILTIGHEIM – The moment Roland Forthomme made his last point (and gave Kozoom the win against Gravelines), battle in the Agipi arena was far from over. The centre stage was reserved for Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers, on the other table Marco Zanetti and Filippos Kasidokostas were slugging it out.

At the break of this top match, the score was an even 2-2, as Jérémy Bury had beaten Jérôme Barbeillon after a fabulous comeback ( he trailed 38 – 20) and Francis Connesson had beaten Jean-Christoph Roux.

Marco Zanetti made it very clear that he had the upper hand over Kasidokostas this evening (32-9 after 14 innings), he averaged around 2 the entire match and won comfortably: 50-35 in 29.

The decision had to come from the top billing: Caudron and Jaspers, two players that also battle for a place in the final round of the Agipi Masters in the upcoming days.

The Belgian was the quicker out of the blocks (19-10 in 6), kept scoring but saw Jaspers get his nose in front after a run of 8 in the 12th inning (32-30). Another 6, and the scoreboard showed what a good match it was: 38-34 in 13 to Jaspers, 2.714 and 2.429 average.

The Dutchman extended his lead to 46-37 and recorded a 50-44 win in 23 innings. ,,This says nothing about the Agipi match we are about to play’’, said Jaspers. ,,We are all top players, tomorrow is another day, and we are on the same level, every match is an event in itself.’’

Jaspers’ win set the score to 4-4, leaving both teams undefeated: Andernos has 7 points from 4 matches, Agipi has 5 from 3.

Their main rival, Laxou, lost a point against Albert, mostly due to a remarkable victory by Peter Ceulemans, who got the better of Torbjörn Blomdahl (50-29 in 34). Kevin Perrotin won for Albert before the break, Pierre Soumagne beat Cédric Melnytschenko (50-42 in 55) and levelled matters.

Martin Horn was responsible for the 4-4, after an easy win over Kurt Ceulemans (50-18 in 23 innings).
Kozoom beat Gravelines by the maximum score (8-0). Roland Forthomme (v. Martin Spoormans, 50-32 in 29) and Peter De Backer (v. Ronny Daniels, 50-31 in 36) beat their countrymen. Frédéric Mottet defeated Frédéric Roelants and Marc Boingneres bested Gino Gremain.