Carom
OOSTMALLE - Frédéric Caudron had just finished his match when he looked forward to the upcoming weeks. The victory in the second BTS Grand Prix (40-21 in the final against Eddy Merckx) was nothing more than a good win, a stop and a new start in a very busy and important period in this year.
Today (Thursday) Caudron steps in his car for a ride over 900 kilometers to the Billard Masters in Lausanne, next week he will play in Schiltigheim for the Agipi Masters, then from 12 April, the European championship in Brandenburg, first individually, then by team along with Eddy Merckx .
And again the high quality of Belgian three cushion is accentuated in the line-up for the EC: Caudron and Merckx, the double world champions from Viersen, will start off in the Europeans as Belgians second team. Roland Forthomme and Eddy Leppens, the numbers one and two of the Belgian championship, are at the start as Belgium 1.
The second BTS Grand Prix, in the wonderful and crowded Salpho billiard room in Oostmalle, turned out into a final with the two strongest players in the country. They remained after a long session of preliminary rounds with over a hundred players from the upper classes.
With many heavyweights from the billiard world in the stands (Raymond Ceulemans and his wife Angèle, the entire BTS board, Eddy Leppens, Peter Ceulemans, Johan Claessen, Luc and Renata Verhoeven from Verhoeven billiards and the fanatic fans close to the billiards) unrolled a finale, in which mainly Caudron showed his high class.
He said afterwards: ,,It's not that I want to make spectacular caroms, but when I see the solution, I want to play it. And I do not like to play defense, to the red ball, when there is a very difficult position. Even a miss can be beautiful. I like to show the audience how delightful billiards can be.’’
Michel van Camp, with Frédéric Caudron one of the owners of the Salpho, had already announced two semifinals before: Frédéric Caudron-Peter Ceulemans and Eddy Merckx-Eddy Leppens.
Both matches were decided in the final sprint. Peter Ceulemans went up and down in his match with Caudron to 25-24. Then came Caudron’s really breakaway, in three innings (6, 5 and 4) to the finish: 40-31 in 18).
Merckx-Leppens was in balance until 21-20 in 18 innings, but Merckx had a better final shot with 5, 3, 3, 3 and 3 (40-27 in 25).
The spectators in the Salpho then got ready to face a delicious final, in which Caudron in his own center and based on his previous performances was slightly favorite.
Eddy Merckx, the world (individually and also by team with Caudron), however, missed the start, when a handfull misses bunched together. Beyond all Merckx was nog rewarded for the points he made. Caudron made a solid attack and ran out to 15-3 (7), 25-10 (13), and finally 40-21 in 20 innings.
,,That’s the way it goes sometimes when things go belly up’’, was Merckx’ realistic comment after the match. ,,I felt the billiard throughout the whole tournament, but unfortunately not in this final game.’’
Caudron pulled the trigger after the halfway point and showed the crowd his cue wizardry with some great shots. Moreover, he remained attentive until the redemptive end.
,,I had a big advantage, indeed, but against Eddy you never know. I remember the World championship last year and the Superprestige in Lommel, when I was fifteen or twenty points on the lead, but eventually Merckx won the match.’’
On Tuesday, Eddy Leppens won the BTS classics tournament in De Salph: he defeated Patrick Niessen in the semifinals balk-line 47/2 (200 points) in one inning and Frédéric Caudron in the final in three innings.