The European messenger Jean Pierre Guiraud of the CEB sent around a newsletter last night, Wednesday, which will not cheer up billiard players and fans. The most striking news is that the European three cushion Championships in the Netherlands (Berlicum) can not take place from 8 to 12 June, although the organizers, until two days ago, assumed that the event could be played with many restrictions. Further news is that the European Artistic Championship in Gandia, Spain and the Euro Tour for youth in Ostrava, Czech Republic have been postponed to next billiard season.
The Dutch BEN organisation is hoping very hard that the European Championship will be allocated to the Netherlands for next edition, but officially, this is not yet known. Harry Mathijssen, BEN: ''We finally have to accept that a big tournament like the European Championships with no spectators and all those strict measures is far from ideal to organise.''
The good news from the UMB front this week was that the World Championships for ladies and juniors, in the Dutch town of Heerhugowaard, have been moved up one week because of the Kozoom Challenge finals. The ladies World Championship, where Therese Klompenhouwer defends her title, is now on the calendar for 28, 29 and 30 September, the Junior World Championship on 1, 2 and 3 October in Hotel Heer Hugo. There, in the weekend before that, the Night of the Magic Balls will be played with Dick Jaspers, Semih Sayginer, Marco Zanetti and Torbjörn Blomdahl as commentator.
The Dutch number one Dick Jaspers can enjoy his European title, which he won in Brandenburg in 2019 in a final against Marco Zanetti, a little longer. The same goes for Therese Klompenhouwer as European champion in the ladies. The European federation has been forced to cancel due to the worrying COVID-19 developments in many European countries, so has to ''unfortunately'' report new mutations again on the calendar.
The official cancellations:
- European Championship three cushion individuals, Berlicum (Netherlands) from 8 to 12 June 2021.
- European Artistic Championships, Gandia (Spain) from 24-27 June.
- Euro Youth, Ostrava (Czech Republic) from 5-8 August 2021.
On the calendar is officially confirmed: the preliminaries with six more groups in the Kozoom 3C Challenge Cup from 5 May to 4 June.
The Coupe d'Europe three cushion in Porto (Portugal), scheduled from 24-29 August 2021, remains on the calendar.
The General Assembly of the CEB will not be held in Valencia, Spain, on 19 June 2021, as planned, but will be held by videoconference.
On the UMB calendar for the coming months are the Five&Six tournaments in Korea from 1-18 July 2021, the Survival 3C Masters in Korea from 16-22 August and the UMB World Cup in Korea from 6-12 September.
The World Championship three cushion individual is in Korea from 20-24 October.