3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - The two winners finally took the head of two paper tigers. Dick Jaspers and Martin Horn cracked a nut with a sledgehammer, the Dutchman against Lütfi Cenet (50-25 in 24 innings), the Dutchman against Ryuuji Umeda (50-37 in 27).
Jaspers and Horn were in the first breakaway in their group, in which Marco Zanetti could watch the competition without playing on the first day. Jaspers and Horn got their teeth into a match without much opposition. The Dutchman showed his qualities at the end, Horn at the start of his match.
,,I didn't feel so comfortable in the end'', Horn said afterwards. ,,The table changed a bit, but also my mind, that's why I was not so sure to win.''
He had had a good start, the German (23-8 in 7 innings), raised his advantage with some small runs to 42 in 17, but needed eight more runs for the ten last points.
Dick Jaspers did the opposite. The two-time winner of the Agipi Masters had a lousy start, ran out to a score of 25 points in 16 innings, but then made the gap with a run of seven.
His last three innings were decisive with 4, 8 and 1. Lütfi Cenet was knocked down in that last part. When he oversaw the match, he could only conclude that he had thirteen zeros in 24 innings.