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Belge du bassin gets the balls rolling

01/28/2012

Published by frits bakker

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© © Didier Fioramonti
Roland Forthomme had an amazing finish against Jérémy Bury.

SCHILTIGHEIM - The Belgians have a very nice expression for it, when someone seems to lose a match, but wins with an amazing endshot. 'Roland Forthomme rescued the furniture' against Jérémy Bury this morning, in the early hours of the second qualification day. The 'Belge du Bassin', a nickname he gave himself due to his friendship with the people in Andernos les bains, is back and has been bombed as a big contender in his group.

Roland's supporters from Liège wouldn't have given one hundrd euro's for his chances when he looked at a 37-20 backlog after Bury made a run of twelve and the Belgian scored only six times one carom between the tenth and the 27th inning.

But then, suddenly, the fire was on for the man who can suffer on his chair, beating a dead horse, but suddenly can explode and eat up his opponent. That's what Forthomme did with his run of ten in the 28th and right after a seven in 29th turn. So let's say: from ten caroms behind on 41-30 to eight caroms ahead in two innings. ,,Typically Forthomme'', so he qualified his sprint. His opponent backed away and knew that he was lost on a score of 50-44.

Dani Sánchez and Eddy Merckx played another exciting match in this round. The Spaniard, who finally wants to shine in this arena, after all his disappointments here, trumped his opponent with runs of 6, 5, 4 and 8 in only four innings, so he took a lead of 47-29 in the end of the match.

But for those who did not know: Eddy Merckx will never been defeated before the last carom. The Belgian fought back, came on 47-43 just before the finish, when Sánchez had missed five times in a row, but at 47-43 the Spaniard made his last winning sprint to 50-43 in 28.

The tension has been growing in this group. Merckx, Bury, Forthomme (who played two matches) and Sánchez (after one match) gathered two match points, HaengJik Kim played once and lost.

Tonight (18.30) Sánchez faces Forthomme, Merckx meets HaengJik Kim.

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