CORFU - The team of Rivoly from Cairo is crowned to the winner of the Royal Pro international invitational tournament that was held in Corfu. Sameh Sidhom was one of the star players, including a 40 caroms match in 14 innings in the semi-final against Giorgos Papageorgiou from DL Sails Royal Pro. The young Egyptian was even 37-21 ahead in eight innings against the champion of Thesaloniki. ,,I began to realize that I could finish within ten innings and then was getting too nervous'', Sidhom noted after the match. When the Egyptian had finished, his opponent made seven points in the equalizer: 40-36 in 14.
Rivoly then played in the final against the Austria GA team, that defeated the team of Denmark in the semi-finals. The Egyptians played with Sameh Sidhom, Riad Nady, Ragay Henry and Khaled Salem. The Austrians of Pottendorf with Johan Schirmbrand, Jimmy Scivacz, Alex Weiss and Alfred Nebuda. Rivoly won the battle for the overall with three wins in four matches. The fourth was stopped before the finish. Sameh Sidhom was again the best: he defeated Johann Schirmbrand 40-24 in 23 innings. Ragay Henry defeated Alex Weiss 40-28 in 48, Khaled Salem beat Alfred Nebuda 40-24 in 47. The Egyptians scored 157 points in 158 innings, Pottendorf 113 points in 158.
Pavlos Zachariadis, the organizer of the tournament, announced that the next Royal Pro tournament will be played in Manacor Mallorca in the summer of 2016. ,,The idea is to create a 'holidays team tournament' with 24 teams, divided into eight groups of three teams. No one will know in advance in which team he will play.''
The top four of 2015's tournament:
1 Rivoly Egypt, 1.055
2 Austria Pottendorf GA 0.934
3 DL Sails Royal Pro 0.987
4 Denmark 1.022.
Sameh Sidhom (left) with his opponent Giorgos Papageorgiou whom he beat 40-36 in 14 innings.
The most known teams:
Rivoly: Sameh Sidhom, Riad Nady, Ragay Henry, Khaled Salem.
Austria WBA: Karl Makik, Claus Maurer, Herbert Thuer, Horst Branc.
DL sails - Royal Pro: Giorgos Papageorgiou, Kostas Kokoris, Nikos Tsaklidis, Dinos Lontzetidis.
Denmark: Allan Schroeder, Poul Bjerring, Allan Jenssen, Claus Mosccov.
Mixed Grill 1: Andreas Efler, Fabio Galloti, Pavlos Zachariadis, Kostas Giotas.
Swiss team: Rene Hendriksen, Pierre Alain Rech, Giorgos Antonopoulos, Adib Soliman.
Pottendorf: Johan Schirmbrand, Jimmy Scivacz, Alex Weiss, Alfred Nebuda
Korkyra 1: Nikos Evaggelou, Dionysis Tsafouros, Spyros Stratigos, Dimitris Pagiatakis.
Portugal (Leça B): Vitor Fernandez, Fernando Caldas, Jose Biscaia, Gonçalo Rodriguez.
BC Edessa: Vlahopoulos, Kiultsopoulos, Vasdekis, Martsis.
The Dutch team with Van Erp, Valentijn, Hermans and Jorissen had to cancel participation, because of national playing obligations. The same as the Turkish team (Tüzül, Yuksel), the French (Bitalis, Reverchon), Spanish (Sánchez, Mas, Crespo, Hernandez) and a German team.