3-Cushion
ATHENS - The Dutch/Belgian top team of Mark Jansen, the sponsor who has a two-year contract with the four players and will soon disclose whether he will continue for his second year, travels to Athens this weekend to play the qualifying rounds for the European Cup for club teams. Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx and Jean Paul de Bruijn are the main competitors for the reigning European champion Bahcelievler. The Turks, as the champion, are exempt from playing preliminary rounds.
Dallinga/AEJ and De Goeie Queue/AEJ sparkled in recent weeks with two incredibly strong performances. In the Netherlands, the team improved the world record team average and brought it up to 2.597. Monday night, in the Salpho in Malle, the foursome shone with another great performance. Dick Jaspers, especially he, played a world clas match (50 in 9 innings, 5.555 average), the team finished 2.486.
The European qualifications are scheduled at five locations this weekend on 18 and 19 April, in the week before the European championships in Brandenburg, which starts on 24 April.
In the European preliminaries, 24 teams will compete in five groups for five tickets in the final round in Istanbul from 29 to 31 May with Turkish titleholder Bahcelievler.
The five cities where the qualifications are played: Athens (Greece), Porcia (Italy), Porto (Portugal), Sabadell (Spain) and Bergisch Gladbach (Germany).
Kozoom makes the trip to Spain to broadcast the group in Sabadell live. The hosting club Coral Colón receives Laxou from France, La Choux de Fonds from Switzerland, the Wiener Billard Azzoziation and the BK Gröndal from Denmark.
The favourites for the group wins are:
xx in Sabadell: Coral Colon (without Dani Sánchez and Nikos Polychronopoulos) and Laxou (without Torbjörn Blomdahl and Martin Horn).
xx In Athens: Dallinga/AEJ with Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx and Jean Paul de Bruijn.
xx in Porcia: BSK Union Wien (with Martin Horn, Andreas Efler and Andreas Kronlachner) and Andernos with Filippos Kasidokostas, Roland Forthomme Peter De Backer and Jérôme Barbeillon).
xx In Porto, FC Porto with Dani Sánchez and Torbjörn Blomdahl and BCC Witten with Eddy Leppens and Ronny Lindemann.
xx in Bergisch Gladbach: BC Deurne without Torbjörn Blomdahl and Jef Philipoom, with Davy van Havere and Ludo Dielis.
The groups:
Sabadell (Spain) LIVE ON KOZOOM
- Societat Coral Colon (Sp): José María Mas, Sergio Jiménez, Carlos Crespo, Xavier Yeste
- Laxou (Fr): Pierre Soumagne, Eric Tromas, Jean Paul Six, Eric Kremer-Leclaire
- CAB La Chaux de Fonds (Sw): Adrien Tachoire, Paco Valente, Arthuro Falce, Alain Houlmann
- Wiener Billard Assoziation (Aus): Arnim Kahofer, Karl Makik, Noel Maurer, Herbert Thuer
- BK Grondal (Den): Dion Nelin, Tonny Carlsen, Lars Dunch, Michael Lose
Athene (Greece)
- Masters BC Atenas (Gr): Kostas Papakonstantinou, Apostolos Balogiannis, Nick Evagelou, Antonis Argyros
- Dallinga/AEJ (Nl): Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Jean-Paul de Bruijn
- Club de Billar Mataró (Sp): Jordi Garriga, Antonio Montes, Pau Benítez, Esteve Mata
- Billar Academia Luxemburg (Lux) Ralf Bohn, Dieter Kiefer, Michael Hammen, Brice Briére
Porcia (Italië)
- Green Planet Gold (It) Marco Zanetti, Fabio Gaiotti, Antonio Addo, Giorgio Mancini
- BSK Unión SU Wien (Aus): Martin Horn, Efler Andreas, Andreas Kronlachner, Werner Proske
- Andernos (Fr): Filippos Kasidokostas, Roland Forthomme, Peter De Backer, Jérôme Barbeillon, Francisco Connesson
- Bristol Odense (Den): Michael Nilsson, Brian Hansen, Allan Schröder, Poul Jensen Bjerring
- Elektronic Tarti Aletieri Sistemieri Bilardo Spor (Tur): Savas Bulut, Murat Celik, Ahmet Alp, Hamit Akkaya
Porto (Portugal)
- FC Porto (Por): Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Manuel Santos Oliveira, Joao Ferreira
- BCC Witten (Ger): Eddy Leppens, Ronny Lindemann, Kersten Reinartz, Volker Baten
- BC Zürich (Sw): René Hendriksen, Torsten Danielsson, Behzat Cetin, Nadir Paulovič
- De Goeie Queue (Bel): Roger Roefs, Bart Tuerlinckx, Michael Henderix, Jurgen Peeters
- DL Velas Favorable real (Gr): Giorgos Papageorgiou, Nikolaos Tsaklidis, Manol Minaoglu, Thanasis Pantelias
Bergisch Gladbach (Ger):
- Bergisch Gladbacher (Ger): Markus Dömer, Thomas Horcher, Jens Probhardt, Frank Eversmann
- Dolunay Bilardo Egitim Spor Kulübü (Tur): Muharrem Peker, Haci Arap Yaman, Mubin Isli, Eray Erdogan
- Leca FC (Por): Nuno Amaral, Joao Gomes, José Armando Escudeiro, Vitor Fernandes
- Alcamo (It): Michele Notarrigo, Emilio Sciacca, Sebastiano Ruocco, Francesco Orlando
- BC Deurne (Bel): Davy van Havere, Ludo Dielis, Jozef Gijsels, Vincent Eugene.
