Carom
BLANKENBERGE - The Belgian final in three cushion with 32 players in eight groups of four has come to the last two groups, tomorrow (Thursday) with Eddy Merckx, Kurt Ceulemans and Ronny Brants among others. Twelve of sixteen players are known now for the knock-outs. Roland Forthomme and Danny Geysen were the group winners on Wednesday. The first title at the Multi's has already been won. Eddy Leppens is can not be caught up by the others anymore in the balk line discipline 47/1, in which three of four rounds are played.
Dany Boutet was the revelation so far in three cushion. The 48-year old player played only once before at the Multi's, when he was defeated by Eddy Merckx in sets 2-1 in 2009. Now, 11 years later, the outsider from the 10.000-native town of Pepinster, unexpectedly seized the group win ahead of Wesley de Jaeger and Jef Philipoom. Boutet was astonished after his performance. ''I took my chances after a good preparation and I'm happy with my win. I want dedicate my qualification to a good friend who has died 18 months ago: Alain Clabots.''
The draw against Jef Philipoom (40-40 in 33) paved the way to a spectacular course for Boutet and thanks to his winning scores against Wesley de Jaeger (40-36 in 42) and Mathy Monnissen (40-29 in 32), the Liege citizen joined the group of six winners so far.
Dany Boutet is a member of the BC Herstalien, where he plays for his first year. He is the father of two boys aged 21 and 19 (Denis and Régis) and is working as a welder for 28 years. "I am happy anyway'', he soberly said after his qualifying matches. ''Billiards is what it is here, you have to take what comes when it happens. The match against Philipoom was special for me, as all matches are when we play an opponent who once was world champion. But I trained very well last weeks, that is what promotes my concentration and the way to approach this kind of matches. I was not nervous at all. I just said to myself: you have nothing to lose. I even could have won the match against Philipoom.''
The French speaking Belgian will return to the Multi's with a lot of confidence. ''I want to tell that it was a very special day when I could win the group. My vest which I wore for the first time, was given to me by the wife of my best friend Alain Clabots, who died 18 months ago. This qualification was very emotional: I dedicate it to him, because I know that somewhere he was with me.''
Dany Boutet and Wesley de Jaeger advanced in Group E on Tuesday evening, Francis Forton and Philippe Vandendriessche in Group D. It was in averages the least of four days in the three cushion qualifications so far. Philipoom, normally one of the contenders to at least reach top eight, first stumbled over Boutet (40-40 in 33) and then had no chance playing Wesley de Jaeger 40-29 in 37. De Jaeger played his best match against Mathy Monnissen (40-15 in 17). Francis Forton remained unbeaten and led the ranking in Group G followed by three players with two match points. Philippe Vandendriessche was the best on average, with 0.942 ahead of Martin Ravestyn and Ronny Daniels.
Roland Forthomme started in Group B with a big win over Leslie Menheer (40-23 in 19) and assured himself of qualification when he later surpassed Davy van Havere (40-39 in 26). At the end of the day, Forthomme also defeated Marc Celen 40-31 in 33. The group's ending was in the hands of Leslie Menheer. Because of his victory over Davy van Havere (40-34 in 45), three players finished with two points. Van Havere was the best on average.
Danny Geysen earned his ticket for the qualification in the first two rounds, in which he first beat Kenny Miatton (40-20 in 38) and later Frédéric Mottet (40-33 in 38). The final round led to the decision for the second player in this group. Mottet finished with 10 in his match with Kenny Miatton, 40-24 in 29. Geysen took the group win with maximum points thanks partly to a run of 11 in his last match against Pascal Claus:
The game type bal-kline 47/1 has completed three rounds and, as a bonus, still has matches to go between Eddy Leppens and Philippe Deraes, the numbers one and two, and between Maarten Janssen and Peter Vandeloo. The most curious match, when Leppens played against Janssen, was won by Leppens by one point. Maarten Janssen missed his last carom curiously at 149-133 and offered his opponent the chance to finish with 17: 149-150 in 8 innings.
Eddy Leppens also beat Philip Deraes later in the evening, 150-45 in 4. These two players meet again, but even if Deraes wins 150-0 in one inning, he cannot catch up with Leppens: Leppens now has 25.00 on average , Deraes can reach 17.67 at most.
Maarten Janssen leads the free game after two rounds with 4 points ahead of Deraes and Devos with 2. Leppens leads after two rounds in 47/2 with 4 points, followed by Deraes and Janssen with 2.
The top six in three cushion after six of eight groups:1 Roland Forthomme 6-1.538-9
2 Peter Ceulemans 6-1.411-15
3 Francis Forton 6-1.304-11
4 Danny Geysen 6-1.100-11
5 Steven van Acker 6-1.071-5
6 Dany Boutet 5-1.100-7
The rankings in three cushion on Tuesday:
Group E:
1 Dany Boutet 5-1.100-7
2 Wesley de Jaeger 4-1.274-8
3 Jef Philipoom 3-1.112-7
4 Mathy Monnissen 0-902-5.
Group G:
1 Francis Forton 6-1.304-11
2 Philippe Vandendriessche 2-0.942-7
3 Martin Ravestyn 2-0.940-8
4 Ronny Daniels 2-0.776-5.
Three cushion on Wednesday:
Group A:
1 Danny Geysen 6-1.052-11
2 Frédéric Mottet 4-1.156-10
3 Pascal Claus 2-0.923-7
4 Kenny Miatton 0-0.724-5
Group B:
1 Roland Forthomme 6-1.538-9
2 Davy van Havere 2-1.097-9
3 Marc Celen 2-0.854-5
4 Leslie Menheer 2-0.807-5.
Roland Forthomme is the best of all qualifiers so far in three cushion
Danny Geysen, group winner and qualified
Eddy Leppens took the first title: winner in balk-line 47/1