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Hard fight for five extra places in Blankenberge

06/19/2019

Published by frits bakker

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© © Dirk Acx
Peter Ceulemans and Ronny Lindemann speaking about their match

BLANKENBERGE - Two PBA players, two Turks and one Greek have returned their starting ticket for the World Cup in Blankenberge. The cancellations, partly in protest against announced UMB suspensions, partly for other reasons, resulted in a tough fight for five extra places on Tuesday. The sixteen group winners earned the ticket for the third day themselves with Turgay Orak (Turkey), Dong Hoon Kim (Korea) and Valentin Andaluz Anton (Spain) as the top three finishers. The race for the top five in the runners up ranking was most of all a matter of speculation and calculation in the final session of the day.

The arrival of a five-man Korean delegation from the PBA brings a some excitement to the corridors outside the arena of the Blankenberg casino. Kurt Ceulemans, the organizer of this World Cup, spoke quietly about a new hope at the negotiating table. The outcome of the UMB/PBA dialogue will be followed in many billiard circles with Argus eyes. The parties will deploy heavy weaponry, because the UMB also comes with eight board members to the attempts to reach a compromise.

The battle at the match tables in the arena, for which the World Cup is primarily intended, now starts on the third day. Peter De Backer, the number one of the first day, went on his against, Lars Dunch, to a spectacular finish with an artistic shot (a force follow, twice short, corner, long) to the winning carom: 30-29 in 24 innings. It was the last score of the evening in the final session, in which J.S. Kim against Jef Philipoom (30-15 in 17) and Valentin Andaluz Anton against Manolis Minaoglu (30-11 in 17) were the best winners.

Ronny Lindemann opened the day with by far the best match and the most spectacular score: 30-2 in ten innings against Dutchman Anjo Krijnen. Lindemann's second was a one with much more exciting, when he faced Peter Ceulemans in a neck-and-neck race for the group win. Ceulemans had the best final part and won 30-28 in 33, Lindemann was one of the best five runners-up for the next day.

Dong Hoon Kim played a fast match in the early rounds (against Jordy de Kruijf, 30-12 in 14), Jacob Haack Sörensen finished in 17 innings against Leslie Menheer. In the last seconds, Belgian Eddy Willems surprised his countryman Steven van Acker 30-29 in 31. Volkan Cetin was on average the best of three two-points-players ahead of Gülsen Degener and Henk Blauwblomme.

The top 16 on Tuesday:
1 Turgay Orak 4-1,714-6
2 Dong Hoon Kim 4-1,666-10
3 Valentin Andaluz Anton 4-1,500-6
4 Jacob Sörensen 4-1,463-13
5 Jun Tae Kim 4-1,363-6
6 Chang Hoon Seo 4-1,304-4
7 Peter De Backer 4-1,276-7
8 Murat Goekmen 4-1,176-6
9 Sung Il Jeung 4-1,132-5
10 Peter Ceulemans 4-1,052-5
11 Eddy Willems 4-0,937-6
12 Kevin Vasseur 4-0,882-5
13 Rui Costa 3-1,132-7
14 Jungsub Kim 2-1,314-8
15 Fernando Manuel Silva 2-0,982-6
16 Volkan Cetin 2-0,883-5.

The five runners-up who return:
1 Ronny Lindemann 2-1,348-7
2 Leslie Menheer 2-1,243-10
3 Lars Dunch 2-1,229-2
4 Jef Philipoom 2-1,195-6
5 Manol Minaoglu 2-1,171-2.

Some interesting groups for Wednesday:
Group E: Bong Chul Kim, Maréchal, Vasseur
Group G: Andersen, Salman, P. Ceulemans
Group J: Papakonstantinou, Montes, De Backer
Group L: Van Beers, Tüzül, Jun Tae Kim
Group M: Sir, Chi Yeon Cho, Andaluz Anton
Group P: Klompenhouwer, Philipoom, Orak

Turgay Orak, the best of sixteen group winners on Tuesday

Jacob Haack Sörensen, strong performance and a 13-run

Valentin Andaluz Anton was among the best on the second day

Eddy Willems beat his countryman Steven van Acker on one point

 

 

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