Carom
BLANKENBERGE - The Belgian championships with all disciplines are close to the end of the second day after a flawless start on Sunday. Peter Ceulemans already showed his great form today, Monday, with a top run of 15 against younger brother Bart. Three cushion is about to complete the first two groups of eight in total and the classic game types launched a cautious start in free game and balkline 71/2. Henri Pelgrims, the 66-year-old sports leader, looks happy and satisfied, walking around in the arena.
''I'm happy to see the audience on the starting days," assures the retired engineer in telephony and security from Mont Saint Gilbert in Wallonia/Brabant. And also very important: ''The timetable is well maintained, partly thanks to the shortened matches in the classic game types. Today, a free game match took a little too long, but three cushion has caught up with that again. On Sunday, we even finished around 22.00.
He himself, assisted by Francis Bosseloirs, starts at 9.00 and closes the doors around noon. The total of matches in the week of the Multi's, he calculates quickly, is 140. The juniors, ladies, 5 pin players and wheelchair players started up the opening on Sunday. The level was not very high, says the sports leader. "In the three disciplines on Sunday, the limit of innings was at 30, so the sessions mostly finished on time."
Henri Pelgrims, married and father of a son and daughter, has not been a top player in the forty years that he plays billiards. He mainly showed himself in his clubs with various positions and was chairman of the Brabant region. Three years ago, he succeeded Patrik Mintjens as sports leader at the Multis. "The preparation takes about one month and is very important," Pelgrims experienced in the first years.
The remaining groups in 3-cushion will be finished in the coming days. On Friday and Saturday, the final rounds are played in the juniors, ladies, 5 pins and wheelchair billiards. Then, the artistic players enter the tournament as well.
Peter Ceulemans and Steven van Acker are the first group winners who qualified for the last sixteen in three cushion. Peter Ceulemans was impressive in his match when he faced young brother Bart, in which he trailed 17-13 after 14 innings and then started the decisive attack with a run of 15 (40-26 in 23). Steven van Acker was the winner in the group in which he started with wins over Bart Leys (40-25 in 36) and Geert Meylemans (40-30 in 30).
The 5 pins players show up for the semi-finals after the start in two groups of three: Peter Debaes meets Miguel Bustos, Peter Mostrey plays Ismaele Trentino in the best four.
In the ladies, Danielle Le Bruyn remained unbeaten with two wins and 0.568 on average. She meets Jaimie Buelens, who played one draw, in the deciding match. Buelens shared the win with Mireille Vandaele (23-23 in 50) and averaged 0.470 with three match points.
Dylan Parent took the four match points in the matches facing Nick Rosier and Nino Coeckelbergs. On Saturday, Parent will play against Kevin van Hees, who himself is eliminated after two losses.
Stefan Neyens and Johan Grimon play the final match both with four match points. Neyens has four points and 0,597, Grimon 4 points and 0,476.
The Belgisn referees for the first days at the Multi's.