3-Cushion
LUXOR - The second day at the Luxor World Cup takes off with the German Thomas Kerl, celebrating his fiftieth birthday, with eight Turksish players at the tables, four Egyptians, one Belgian, one Jordanian and a pretty unknown Korean. Thomas Kerl took his flight to Luxor a few days before to prepare perfectly to his first matches. ,,We will wrap the cue ball'', Dutch referee Willem Hoffman said before he started the match against Hakan Adiguzel.
This is not yet the day of the real heavyweights, although Peter De Backer, Young Chull Kim, Hakan Incekara and first day's best Can Capak can show up in tremendous matches. The friendly veteran Jorge Bastos from Portugal, an amazing promoter of his sport, is also part of the preliminary round players.
Semih Sayginer has been spotted, Therese Klompenhouwer has arrived, Arnim Kahofer, like the Koreans for the preliminaries of whom Jae Guen Kim is the best known. The French artistic champion Jean Reverchon will be his opponent in the group stage.
The stay in Luxor and mainly at the Sonesta St George hotel is very pleasant: the temperatures of 40 degrees (on Saturday) dropped to 32. The city looks calmer than last year and now and then a cruise ship is passing on the Nile on its way to Aswan.
Farouk Barky and his great team are the fabulous hosts, as always in the Egypt World Cups. The referee corps (except Willem Hofman) consists of only own Egyptian people. The world top can be assured: they are in excellent hands for the coming days.
The referee corps at the Luxor World Cup.