Carom
BRANDENBURG - The starting signal had been given and at that giant scoreboard were the names of top players and champions between those of strange or unknown players. Jose Maria Mas, one of the top five players in Spain, played against the Turkish champion Ahmet Alp. Jef Philipoom and Christian Rudolph, both former world champions in three-cushion, entered the immense billiard room in the early rounds.
But also on the scoreboard were the names of Mark Kotvojs, Gérard Goedert, Tapio Soinisalo, Saud Muhovic, Ari Fägerström, Balazs Leb, Stpan Joch, Dominik Nebuda and Andrea Nardi.
The European championships in all disciplines, with 350 players, is a collection of all specialists, including 5 pins billiards, free game on the small table, balk-line game, one cushion etc. Today (Friday), Saturday and Sunday is reserved for the big names in the individual tournament: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Dani Sánchez, Filippos Kasidokostas, the title holder, Eddy Merckx the world champioen. But also: Therese Klompenhouwer, the women’s multiple European champion.
Farouk Barki, the vice-chairman of the CEB, wished the organization lots of success in his opening speech at the start of the biggest billiards event ever. Jean Pierre Guiraud, the sportsdirector at the EC, organized in the Stahlpalast in Brandenburg, was looking from the stage whether all matches had started in time at the twelve match tables and eight small tables.
Wolfgang Rittman, the president, who already walked around for six days during the preparation, remained remarkably calm under all the stress for the tournament. ,,The tension will be gone when the balls are rolling,'' Rittman said encouragingly.
The Belgian Jef Philipoom , former world- and European champioen (1995) played the best match in the opening session against Frenchman Jean Reverchon, who was swept off the table in a top match.
And one of the key matches in the groups was the encounter between Jose Maria Mas and Ahmet Alp, two players who have the quality to to come up to the main tournament.
Jose Maria Mas (,,my friends call me Mia'') has brought along his form from the Grand Tournament in Thessaloniki, where he defeated Andreas Effler in the semifinals (40-25 in 30) and Adnan Yüksel in the final match (40-23 in 20).
Jose Maria is very enthusiastic about Pavlos Zachriadis’ tournament, like all players who were there. ,,There’s a special atmosphere, players have a drink between the matches, they are talking, they behave like friends. The only problem in Greek is that there is a fight between organizers. Last year this tournament was completely full, this year, Pavlos received twenty cancellations from Athen players in the last week due to the mutual problems. That is very unfortunate for the tournament, Pavlos does not deserve that.''
Jose Maria Mas (31), a very sympathetic player, is the number four of his country, with the same points as Dani Sánchez, behind Ruben Legazpi (1st), Antonio Ortiz and Serio Jimenez. Mia Mas comes from Matadepera, about 30 kilometers from Barcelona, where he started playing billiards at eighth in the local club.
,,I moved to a bigger club seven years ago, first to Palma de Mallorca, with Brian Knudsen and Carlos Crespo, later to Coral Colon in Sabadell, a Spanish topteam with Dani Sánchez, Carlos Crespo and Nikos Polychronopoulos, or when Nikos can not play, my brother Cesar is the substitute. With Coral Colon we were second in Spain last year, we only lost the final against Gandia.''
,,I'm not a full professional billiards player’’, adds Jose Maria, ,,because I do administrative work in the club Coral Colon. It is a club with four hundred members in total, but not just a billiard club, they also play chess and many people come to the café to watch football on a big screen. The best Spanish chess player, Paco Vallejo, is a member of the club, he is around the twentieth position on the world ranking of best chess players.''
Jose Maria has to pay all costs himself at the European championships in Brandenburg. The Spanish federation only did the inscription. ,,I have to pay for everything, travel, food, drinks, hotel. That is also the reason that I do not play many World Cups. I can not handle it with my work and it is too expensive to participate in all tournaments.''
But yet he must be capable to reach at least the knock-out phase at the European championships as the Spanish number four. The match against Ahmed Alp was certainly a masterful start. ,,I ran ten in the fifth inning, made a big gap, but later on my opponent started to make some small runs. That’s why the finish was pretty exciting with 30-26 in 24 innings.''