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Netherlands and Spain winners in thrilling matches

02/28/2015

Published by frits bakker

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Dick Jaspers in the final sprint of his match against Eddy Leppens

VIERSEN - The qualification of the Netherlands and Spain and the elimination of Belgium B and Greece closed a day full of excitement. Dani Sánchez and Ruben Legazpi will return for the knock-out stage on Saturday). Dick Jaspers and Barry Beers stay in the tournament with the orange team.

The late evening session turned out in favor of Dick Jaspers, who showed his mental strength in the final sprint against Eddy Leppens. Ruben Legázpi finally decided whether his team would qualify or be eliminated.

Dani Sanchez lost his last match against Nikos Polychronopouloz on one carom (40-39 in 26) after the first Greeks had been six points behind in the first match. The match finished with the same equal score as the first encounter between Spain and Greece, but because Ruben Legazpi won 40-28 against Dionisis Tsonkontas, the Spaniards qualified on average.

The clash between the Netherlands-Belgium B was a kind of an upside-down match. Roland Forthomme had a flying start against Barry van Beers (21-0 at the break, 33-8 after thirteen innings). The Belgians were on fire, because also Eddy Leppens came much better out of the blocks than Dick Jaspers and led 23-14 at the break.

Roland Forthomme had a blistering start and led 21-0 against Barry van Beers at the break.

The second half turned the matches the other way around. Barry van Beers couldn't close the whole gap with Forthomme, but started scoring and came back to 40-28 in 24 innings. That brought back a little hope for the Orange team.

Dick Jaspers, at the other table, was 26-16 down and started his attack in the second part. The Dutch leading player even built up a lead (35-50) and when he finished, Leppens had to make seven points in the equalizer to survive with his team. The Belgian champion missed after two caroms.

The last group matches are played on Saturday, with the Belgian A team, Turkey, Korea and Germany A. The matches start at 11.00.

The quarter finals start at 17.00.

Ruben Legazpi led his Spain team to then final rounds.

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