3-Cushion
What means form in billiards, when does a player have 'the feeling' and does it seem that the rhythm will not come, how close is a top match to a much lesser duel? ,,We all have the experience that we awake and feel that the form is not there'', Jeremy Bury said on the eve before the preliminary round in the Agipi Masters.
,,I used to say that a long time ago, but I do not believe it anymore'', Torbjörn Blomdahl said this afternoon, reacting to the ruling of the Frenchman. ,,It's more a matter that everything must be all right, that you yourself are feeling completely fit, that you have practiced enough, but also that you have a blind faith in your material.''
Material, in particular the shaft and the cue tip, are very important for a player to excel. ,,I'm very extreme in it'', Blomdahl, who plays with an Adams cue, said, ,,because I have a special style of billiards. I often shoot with an enormous effect and I play the ball with an extremely high speed. Then you must be sure that the shaft and the cue tip are perfect.''
Frédéric Caudron, who plays with an own mark cue, can underline that. ,,The cue tip is a very complicated story. You never know which one is good and bad before you play with it. The story, that sometimes was told, is that top players were looking in cafes to sneak a cue tip from a cue, but that's nonsense. But a cue tip gives you confidence, that's very important of course.''
Blomdahl gives the best example: ,,I was playing for one year and a half not as good as I'm used to. I dare to say that it was, because I didn't have confidence in my material. I couldn't find the right cue tip. But I finally found it at the end of last year. It's not that I have a lot of them in my suitcase now, I have still only one. But since November, since I have the right shaft and cue tip, I play almost every tournament with an average of two. That's not a coincidence.''
Caudron: ,,I put my own cue tips, but I never can tell in advance what is good and what a bad. In fact, it happened to me, that I had put one that felt so bad, that I didn't touch it again. But three months later I picked it up. I thought, what was wrong with this cue tip? I played with it and it felt great. That's what can happen.''
So, shape and material. It is a combination of special attention to the Agipi arena, where Frédéric Caudron started the tournament in the evening against Eddy Merckx in the Group C. And when he was leading 28-20 in ten innings (average 2.800) he changed his shaft, because his cue tip broke off.
The match, by the way, is a special one: it is the same as the duel was deciding over the Belgian championship in Blankenberge, which was won by Eddy Merckx with a difference of one carom.