3-Cushion
LA BAULE/SAINT QUENTIN - The team of La Baule secured its place in the final round of the French team competition thanks to an 8-0 victory over Albert. Saint Quentin played against Laxou in the other match in Group A and surprisingly won 6-2. Three teams will compete for one place in the final round on the last day on 5 April. La Baule is at 8 match points, Saint Quentin 5, Laxou 4 and Albert 3 points. La Baule scored 1.538 team average with Frédéric Caudron as best man: the Belgian beat his countryman Peter Ceulemans 40-30 in 19. The other match between the two key players ended in a victory for Jérémy Bury against Glenn Hofman: 40-34 in 30.
Mikaël Devogelaere and Jean Paul de Bruijn were the two other players in the maximum team victory by defeating Xavier le Roy and Cédric Melnytschenko in 29 and 26 innings.
Saint Quentin crowned a nice day in the home match against Laxou with a 6-2 victory. The match between Pierre Soumagne and Gwendal Maréchal was the only win for Laxou. Soumagne was the best, 40-35 in 33, after Duriez defeated Eric Tromas in 62 innings. The two Spaniards Zapata and Martinez closed the day as the team winners. Martin Horn and Jef Philipoom, the two foreigners in Laxou's team, suffered a bad day. Juan David Zapata left Philipoom on a big margin: 40-17 in 26. David Martinez faced a very modest Martin Horn, who scored only 33 times in 35 innings (40-33).
The last matches on April 5 are Laxou-La Baule and Albert-Saint Quentin.