3-Cushion
GANDIA - Two Belgian topplayers and two not that famous, but very strongold Spaniards have led the Gandia Cafemax to the Spanish team title. The home team kept the championship in Gandia, The winning team is the successor of Caseta Nova in the championship. Frederic Caudron was again the big star in the final against Coral Colón. He defeated Dani Sánchez after a termendous start. The Belgian, world's number one paved the way for his teammates.
The home players Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Leppens, Alfonso Legazpi and Armando Moreno absolutely deserved the title for their own audience. Gandia Cafemax was the only team of eight finalists that won all his matches. Frédéric Caudron was the starplayer with five wins and high averages. In the final he flaunted with a marvellous start and was the very best in the battle with Dani Sánchez.
The Belgian jumped in the second inning with a run of eleven to 13-1, built the lead up to 19-6 and 26-7 in six innings (4.333 average), had a little time-out in his score, when Sánchez closed the backlog to 36 - 25, but in the eighteenth Caudron made his last point and won the first match for his team: 40-31.
The joker of the team in this championship, Armando Moreno, was again very important for the result. In the final he defeated Ricardo Garcia. He slowly built up a gap from the tenth inning: first, 20-14, then 28-20, 33-21 and finally 39-25 and 40-27 with a nice, thin round the table shot.
That meant the immediate end of the finale match, although there was still played at two tables. Theoretically, however, Gandia Cafemax with two victories couldn't be surpassed in caroms, because Eddy Leppens (36-23 against Jose Maria Mas) and Alfonso Legazpi (37-34 against Carlos Crespo) had a total of 73 points on the score board and Coral Colón could only score 58 points.
Gandia Cafemax and Coral Colón were rewarded as the finalists with a ticket in the preliminaries of the European Cup. Both teams will not play there in their strongest line-up. Frédéric Caudron undoubtedly will opt for the French Agipi team, with which he is the seven-time European champion. Dani Sánchez is playing in Europe with Dick Jaspers for FC Porto.