3-Cushion
PELOPONNESOS - In the Wild West ranch, where the Peloponnesos World Cup has started the third day of playing, things are going well so far, according to the schedule. The better players, like Peter Ceulemans, Jérôme Barbeillon, Dinh Nai Ngo, the star in the Korean World Cup, Jose Maria Mas and Luis Aveiga are entering the tournament today (Wednesday), Dave Christiani already won his first match against Therese Klompenhouwer 30-20 in 20 in the early hours.
Farouk Barki, the UMB sportsdirector, keeps a watchful eye at the new organization, Elena, the daughter of sponsor Athanasios Athanasiou (ITB Hellas) , is the mastermind behind all things that happen inside and outside the hall, Michael, the son, is her right hand, in the Saloon people are enjoying, having a good Ouzo and play pool.
The atmosphere in the ranch is lovely, the preliminaries pass off smoothly. The Dutch players Jean Paul de Bruijn and Glenn Hoffman don’t feel well so far, because their luggage, which should been boarded by the KLM in Schiphol, did not arrive in Athens after a three-hour flight.
,,We were on the plane with two hundred people and everyone missed his baggage,'' said JéPé, the Dutch three cushion champion. That also means the two Dutch players on the flight, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Glenn Hoffman, still didn’t find their clothes and – even more importantly - miss their cue.
,,They told us to give priority to our luggage, because we have to play tomorrow,'' Glenn Hofman said.
The Koreans have arrived, the Vietnamese are here already with many players, Frédéric Caudron stays in Athens for a few days, Nikos Polychronopoulos, one of the local heroes arrived with his wife, Peter Ceulemans is here and will perform in the afternoon, Dani Sánchez, on of the favorite players in Greece, is coming later today, Eddy Merckx and probably all the top players will enter the ranch today or tomorrow.
The lead up to the main event had its ups and downs. On the second day Dionisis Tsokantas was the best with the full match points and 1.666, but in the first round of today, he was victimized by the Turk Mehmet Goren, who won the match 30-19 in 23 innings. The Vietnamese delegation made much a huge impression: Minh Cam Ma, who played at the World Games in Colombia, was the third of the ranking, averaging 1.428, behind the Korean Chi Yeon Cho (1.578).
Thirteen players remained undefeated, nine of the thirteen finished over one average, Kostas Mayraganis recorded the highest series (9). Nikos Trémoulis, the tournament director in Peloponnesos was eliminated, but he was allowed to come back, because Luis Aveiga did not show up. And Ronald van Geyt and Sylvia Eckel, who already arrived on Friday in the ranch , the tournament is over after two matches: both of them won one game and lost one.
Two Greeks, Apostolos Ballogianis and Alex Balomenos, who were strong fighters on the first day, were leaving the tournament without match points.
We are waiting for the new stars, who will give the tournament a higher level.