Carom
BLANKENBERGE - The semi-finals of the Belgian championships are coming up this night with three top favorites and one outsider in the final stage. The classic battle of cushion between Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron ended this afternoon in the quarterfinals in a victory Merckx (40-32 in 23).
Roland Forthomme was the best in four matches with his win against Peter Ceulemans in thirteen innings: 40-16. Eddy Leppens defeated Steven van Acker (40-23 in 24) and Davy van Havere was the surprise of the quarter finals with a win vs Peter De Backer: 40-36 in 30.
Davy van Havere spoke about a little luxury problem after that victory. The former Belgian Cup winner has to cancel an evening dinner with wife and friends, because he is in the semifinals of the Belgian championship. ,I had'nt watched the program very well and thought that the semi-finals were on Sunday morning,'' said the player from Kapelle with a broad smile. ,,But my wife did not care, she will put away some food for me...''
Frédéric Caudron expressed mainly frustration after losing his match against, Eddy Merckx walked around with a smile. The world champion in this discipline, Caudron, has problems with switching from the balk-line games to three cushion, as he said earlier in the tournament. That was made clear painfully by Eddy Merckx.
,,My mistakes are punished, I have not played well enough, but I have no excuse,'' said Caudron. ,,I'm frustrated because I can't do what I want in three cushion. I missed a few times, because I touched the the distant balls too thin. The feeling is not there on wide balls, certainly not enough to beat a player like Merckx.''
The start of the game was very poor, with Merckx leading 10-8 after twelve innings. Shortly before the break, Merckx attacked with a run of 11 (30-18). Caudron could answer with small runs of six and five, but on a score of 36-32, Merckx finished with four.
Roland Forthomme was reayly impressive in his match against Peter Ceulemans. The reigning champion started with 5 and 3, hit the gap in the middle of the match with two runs of 8 (7th and 8th inning) and dropped the curtain in the 13th inning with a final rush of ten.
The victory of Eddy Leppens was rock-solid, without highlights, with a top run of seven, but the score was always in his favor. Steven Van Acker missed eight times in a row in the middle of the match, Leppens eventually won 40-23 in 24.
Davy van Havere, cup winner in 2012, was facing Peter De Backer, last year's cup winner. The party was in balance on 19-18 and 32-31, but Van Havere had the best finish with 1, 2, 2, 1, 1 in his last five innings.
The semi-finals at 20.30 tonight:
Van Havere-Merckx
Forthomme-Leppens.