3-Cushion
BLANKENBERGE - On the first day of the Blankenberge World Cup, organized by Kurt Ceulemans and played in the casino along the boulevard, many Belgians were in the spotlights. Peter Ceulemans, Jef Philipoom, Koen Saver and Dirk Weeremans were among the best group winners. The youngest Ceulemans, Bart, had an ups and downs day. He won his first match against Koen Saver with a promising average, 1.666, but lost his second against Joey de Kok after a poor last part: sixteen misses in a row, 23 zero's in the last 25 innings. Koen Saver was unexpectedly flagged down as group winner.
Kurt Ceulemans has been looking forward for a long time to the week in which he puts Belgian billiards finally again on the calendar as a World Cup organization. The third 2018 World Cup certainly brings all the world's top players into the arena and there will be a lot of spectacle and entertainment. Twelve Belgians closed the opening day with a group win, the other winners were the French Maxime Panaia and Nathan Duriez, the Korean Su Hyun Cho and the Greek John Kokologiannis.
Peter Ceulemans was the best winner with four match points and 1.463. Other well known Belgians to appear again on Tuesday were Peter De Backer, Wesley de Jaeger, Davy van Havere, Andy de Bondt and Ronny Daniels. Mathy Monnissen was one of the players with a run of ten, but he couldn't qualify. He was third and last in the Peter Ceulemans group. Jean Marie Bolle, an eccentric appearance, closed the line of players who were eliminated.
Peter De Backer did not yet show his real face with 0.983, still he eliminated Vietnamese Vo and Korean Lee. The performances of Tobias Bouerdick (0.569), Berry Dallinga (0.563), Joey de Kok (0.689) and Danielle Le Bruyn (0.473) were below expectations.
The sixteen group winners:
1 Peter Ceulemans 4-1.463-7
2 Su Hyun Cho 4-1.363-10
3 Dirk Weeremans 4-1.276-6
4 Jef Philipoom 4-1.250-6
5 Davy van Havere 4-1.176-7
6 Henk Blauwblomme 4-1.153-5
7 Wesley de Jaeger 4-1.034-6
8 Peter De Backer 4-0.983-8
9 Nathan Duriez 4-0.869-4
10 John Kokologiannis 4-0.821-4
11 Ronny Daniels 4-0.810-6
12 Danny Wuyts 4-0.810-5
13 Bart Leys 4-0.800-5
14 Andy de Bondt 4-0.800-3
15 Maxime Panaia 4-0.750-5
16 Koen Saver 2-1,250-8.
This Tuesday, the most known players to enter the tournament in Blankenberge are:
Filippos Kasidokostas, Yusuke Mori, Rayund Swertz, Hiroshi Sasaki, Jean Reverchon, Jose Juan Garcia, Francis Forton, Namiko Hayashi, Jose Maria Mas, In-Won Kang, Ronny Brants, Antonio Montes, Nalle Olsson, Omer Karakurt and Dave Christiani.
Bart Ceulemans, promising start, poor finish
Koen Saver, unexpected group winner
The French champion Maxime Panaia qualified for the next round
Jean Marie Bolle closed the line of players on the starting day