BLANKENBERGE - The Red Sea, in the Hurghada World Cup was where he announced his comeback on the international stage. The North Sea, in the Belgian multi-discipline championships, was where he proved to be at his incomparable best again. He has regained his national 3-cushion crown, and that must have been his main goal. But Caudron also added the titles in one-cushion and 71/2, in which he had not competed for a while. If the Multi's have proved anything, it is this: if Caudron wants to win something, he can push aside even specialists like Patrick Niessen and Eddy Leppens.
Caudron won his 3-cushion title on the closing day, in a final against Roland Forthomme. That match came to life only after some ten innings, with Forthomme leading 17-13. Caudron's signature quick start failed him, but once the diesels were humming, there was no stopping him. A string of imaginative and beautiful points, two over seven rails in the closing stages, gave Caudron the lead when he ran 5, 6 and 11 to win the match 40-19.
Roland Forthomme showed how much class and fighting spirit he has, when he used his equalizing inning to run 11. It was an "encore" for the crowd in the Blankenberge casino, and it turned 40 - 19 into 40 - 30 (14 innings). Caudron played one of the best Belgian championships ever, and the 3-cushion title gave him 30 important points for the world ranking. He is now a little closer to Tasdemir, who is in 5th position. Roland Forthomme, thanks to his 2nd place, remains nicely 8th, just behind Marco Zanetti.
The Belgian 3-cushion title was Caudron's seventh. He shatters the 2014 average record by Eddy Merckx (1.875): Caudron scored 2.372. It is his second best tournament average ever, behind the 2.420 from the 2011 Vienna World Cup.
Earlier in the day, Frédéric Caudron also won the title in one-cushion, beating Eddy Leppens in the deciding match. That ended 150-81 in 9 innings, Caudron running 115 in the fourth inning. Peter De Backer won the bronze. The averages, other than Caudron's and Leppens (17.64 and 11.54) were far from impressive. De Backer, who won this event just two years ago, only averaged 8.00.
Patrick Niessen won the free game in heroic fashion. Four times in four matches did he produce the 400 points in a single inning, ending with maximum points and a maximum average of 400.00.
Peter Mostrey and Alain Clabots were pretty close in the final of the 5-pins event. Clabots started off just a bit better, winning the first set 60-58, but he lost the second and third sets to DOS-Roeselaere's strong lead player (60-42, 60-47 and 60-44). This sport, still in its infancy in Belgium, got some major promotion during the Blankenberge event. Franky Deconinck, championing this discipline, said in front of the Kozoom camera on Saturday that there is a great future for 5-pins in Belgium.
Final scores:
3-cushion:
1 Frédéric Caudron 14-2.372-12
2 Roland Forthomme 12-1.698-11
3 Davy van Havere 10-1.188-9
4 Eddy Leppens 8-1.326-12
5 Steven van Acker 8-1.144-8
6 Francis Forton 7-1.375-6
7 Ronny Brants 6-1.187-9
8 Kenny Miatton 6-1.128-9
9 Eddy Merckx 6-1.336-12
10 Peter Ceulemans 6-1.268-12
11 Ronny Daniels 6-1.100-8
12 Jef Philipoom 5-1.494-12.
One-cushion:
1 Frédéric Caudron 8-17.64-115
2 Eddy Leppens 5-11.54-60
3 Peter De Backer 4-8.00-48
4 Frédéric Mottet 2-6.58-23
5 Francis Forton 1-6.20-38
Free game:
1 Patrick Niessen 8-400.00-400
2 Maarten Janssen 6-109.36-394
3 Philippe Deraes 3-83.54-400
4 Robby Sonck 2-43.53-240
5 Johan Devos 1-29.36-158.