Carom Series
BOCHUM - The DBC Bochum, one of the three clubs organizing the preliminaries in the European championship classic games for teams this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) is a club with a rich history. The free game and balk-line player Klaus Hose was the most member in the club, which is participaing for many years in the bundesliga.
Three teams come will compete for the final places this weekend: DBC Bochum with Fabian Blondeel and Tomas Nockermann as most known players, the Spanish Centelles (with Frédéric Caudron), the French Ronchin (with Brahim Djoubri) and the Swiss national team (with Xavier Gretillat).
The DBC Bochum was founded in 1926 in Dahlhausen, where people in the pre-war years played billiards to lay social contacts. The first official matches were organized in the 1950 in the restaurant of the grandfather of the Bochum billiards idol Klaus Hose.
The carreer of the young Klaus began in 1958, after he had already practiced a lot in secret as a little boy. He started when he was sixteen and won his first title one year later in the highest division of the Hattinger city championship, where he beat with the 'serie americaine' older favorites, who were known as' big game players'.
The billiard sport in Dahlhausen and Bochum became more popular than ever. There was a new generation coming up, not only with Klaus Hose, also Wolfgang Fischer and Paul Kimmeskamp developed rapidly as great players.
When in 1960 Karl-Heinz Sonneborn also had joined the club, the foundation was laid for the future success of the club, which was still known under the name 'Unter uns Dahlhausen'.
The young generation made promotion from the district to the national league and became champion in the Westfaase league. In 1963, the club for the first time participated in the German championship in Gelsenkirchen, where they played against Saarbrücken, with the legendary world champion August Tiedtke, Berlin and Duisburg. DBC Bochum obtained the title. The same team repeated that succes in Berlin in 1964 and in 1965 hosting the championship in the Bochumer Humboldt Eck.
The Bochum billiards club was proud of his own talents and especially of Klaus Hose, who grabbed the German champion at the match table for the first time in 1967. The former mayor, Fritz Claus, praised the player as the figurehead of the city. He was also the man who gave the club his new name: DBC Bochum.
President Karl-Heinz Sonneborn bought a match table for the club in 1965, therefor the club had to move to another location. Klaus Hose shone for his club with a new highlight in 1970: he won the European title free game in Italy.
The move to the current location in the Billardzentrum in Weitmar, Am Holtkamp 36, was necessary to allow the players an optimal practice. The club was now longer dependent on the goodwill of billiard room owners.
The board took his responsibility since those years with a great support from the city of Bochum and the Sports Federation. It was very important to continue the results in higher classes. The DBC Bochum made the promotion to the bundesliga, where the club is still performing these days.
Premium pass holders can follow the European preliminaries in Bochum directly on Kozoom this weekend.