Carom Series
BOCHUM - Four of the five French teams and the German Bochum have qualified for the final round of the European Cup for classic teams. The preliminary rounds were played in Soissons, Chartres and Bochum this weekend. Chartres, Soissons and Bochum were the group winners, the two best runners up were Ecully and Ronchin.
The group format for the final round, 7-9 of April in Prague:
Group A: Vitkov Prague, Soissons, Ecully
Pool B: Bochum, Chartres, Ronchin.
In the Chartres group the players of the home team were the stars: Willy Gérimont, Xavier Gretillat and Jacky Justice. The team won all its games except one. Only Justice lost a match in one cushion against Xavier Le Roy (Ecully). The averages of the two balk-line players in 47/2 and 71/2 were slightly over 30. Xavier Roy remained undefeated for Ecully with 8.37 of average. Chartres defeated Ecully 4-2 and won twice 6-0 against the Spanish Coral Colon and the Swiss CBVN.
Chartres finished 18.00 general, Ecully 15.00, Coral Colon 5.70 and CBVN 4.70.
The best overall performance came from Soissons, that with Olivier Careaux, Esteve Mata and Alain Remond. Remond just lost one match against Bernard Villiers from Ronchin 120-9 in six innings (run 100 Villiers). Olivier Careaux shone with twice the maximum run of 250 in matches in one and two innings with 62.50 of average in 47/2. Esteve Mata remained unbeaten in 71/2 with 40.00 overall. Ronchin played without Djoubri Brahim, who was replaced by Pascal Dessaint and only lost 4-2 to Soissons. Bernard Villier remained the only undefeated with an average of 11.61 in one cushion. The German Merlinde and Spanish Eldense ended on the last spots.
In Germany, the host team of Bochum won its three matches against Oissel, Andernos and Vitlav Prague 2. Thomas Nockemann triumphed in his three matches in 71/2 in 2, 4 and 5 innings: 54.54 average. Sam van Etten also played a wonderful tournament with three matches in 3, 3 and 5 innings, average 68.18 in 47/2. That was the best 47/2 performance in all three heats. Francis Connesson returned to the Andernos team, but the four-time world champion lost his three matches against Johann Petit, Adam Kozak and Thomas Nockemann.
The five seeded teams compete with Vitkov Prague (Marek Faus, Dick Jaspers, Leppens) for the Coupe d'Europe in Prague in the weekend of April 7-9.