3-Cushion
The Belgian top player Frédéric Caudron has crowned himself for the eight time as the winner of the Kersttoernooi in Zundert. He defeated in the final his compatriot Roland Forthomme 50-31 in 26 innings. Caudron shined in a crucial phase of the match with a run of ten in the seventh inning, took an adventage of 30-13 in 13 innings and then finished without any problem.
The winner remained unbeaten and undoubtedly was the best of all participants in Zundert. The Belgians dominated the tournament, seven of them shared themselves to the last eight. The only Dutchman was Jean van Erp, who was beaten in the quarter finals.
Roland Forthomme lost only two matches: in the qualification as well as in the final against Caudron. The number two on the stage made runs of fourteen and fifteen. Eddy Merckx and Jef Philipoom did even better with runs of sixteen.
Frédéric Caudron after this edition is not only the record holder with eight victories. He dethroned with his general average Torbjörn Blomdahl as the record holder with an average of 2.092 in 1994. The Belgian finished with 2.097 overall now. The tournament average also was beaten and brought on 1.472.
The Kersttoernooi had in the semi finals today four Belgian players. Frédéric Caudron defeated Eddy Merckx, Roland Forthomme blocked for his teammate the way to the final.
Caudron and Forthomme have met eachother a lot of times this year. Forthomme beat his opponent in the Superprestige and for the competition in French, Caudron won the duels in the Dutch and the Belgian competition, last week in the Ves tournament in Sint Niklaas and now in Zunder.
The Kersttoernooi in Zundert could rejoice an overwhelming interest of the publik this year. The billiardroom in Den Hoek was even sold out in the last two days with more than 150 spectators.