3-Cushion
KAPELLE - The winning match of Dick Jaspers against Frédéric Caudron closed the door to an exciting final day this afternoon. The Belgian master needed one of his famous performances, as he did so much in recent weeks, to bring the tension in the play-offs between the champion team of Van Donge en De Roo and Crystal Kelly, but instead of 4-4 there was a score of 6-2, because Jaspers won the prestigious match against Caudron (50-44). The champion leads and is the big favourite for the title.
Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) Jaspers, Blomdahl, Horn and Van Erp will make the verdict over the team that stops after years of success. The chance to win one more title had reduced to a minimum, because Van Donge en De Roo had built up a lead in matchpoints as well as in caroms (199 against 170). Crystal Kelly really needs a miracle to compete for the title of team champion.
The final day is dedicated to revenge. Torbjörn Blomdahl lost with a difference of carom against Frans van Kuijk this afternoon, Jean van Erp left Raymond Ceulemans (even despite a run of ten) behind with 50-31 and Martin Horn just needed too many innings to beat Raimond Burgman (50-45).
The result was therefore 6-2 for the South Holland Dream Team, which earlier this year took the cup and finished in the league with a big lead. The return of the play-offs final is normally a formality tomorrow. The only chance is that Frédéric Caudron suddenly is emerging as leader of a reborn champion killer.
This afternoon, the Crystal Kelly-boys were on three of four billiard unable a threat he opponent. Frans van Kuijk took the only two match points with his one carom win against Torbjörn Blomdahl, who is far away from his great form and probably will be the number three in his team next year, being replaced by Martin Horn.
Frédéric Caudron, who made a formidable impression in the first two days with matches in 19 and 15 innings, had a difficult start against Jaspers. ,,We both played bad in the beginning'', Jaspers said later. Caudron made the first gap with a run of nine, took a lead of 27-24 and later 39-32 but at that score Jaspers seemed to finiksh the match. He started a big run of fifteen, had three caroms to go, but missed by a little kiss on the sixteenth. Two innings later he reached the fifty points. Caudron required seven points in the equalizer, but missed after one carom.