ISTANBUL - The Belgian billiards world says, when they talk about Bart Ceulemans, that he's always cheerful and happy, living a carefree life, that he's a billiard player with the Ceulemans talents, but not always with the character and fighting spirit to win matches. Ask the young boy and he will answer with a big smile.
But look what happens this year... The Belgian three cushion player, grandson of Mister 100 Raymond Ceulemans, is the leading player in a Dutch team which is playing down below in the highest league. He has to show up against the best players from the top teams. And sometimes, in one of his best days, ,,the bonvivant'' can lit up the sky.
He did it last Sunday when he faced Eddy Merckx, the two-time world champion, winner of the last World Cup in Hurghada, one of the regular top ten players in the world. A no-hope-victim, Bart Ceulemans, you should say.
But not at all.
The youngest offspring of the Ceulemans dynasty flew to the match win after a thrilling final: he was the first at the finish line and saw, to his great joy, that Eddy Merckx missed his last point in the equalizer. And it was not only an important individual victory, also for his team, that surprised the number two in the ranking with a draw.
They travelled with the entire Verbrugge team to the World Cup in Istanbul one day later: Bart Ceulemans, Therese Klompenhouwer, Berry Dallinga and Patrick Vasseur. Two of them, Dallinga and Vasseur, are already out of the World Cup with not too best averages (around 0.600), Therese enters the Turkish arena on the third day and Bart Ceulemans? He survived on this second day.
And how... His first match against Murat Celik was one of the day's highlights. Ceulemans was leading 20-18 after twelve innings, so actually the match only just over halftime. Then came the explosion: the Belgian finished with ten (to 30-18) and his Turkish opponent scored a nine in the equalizer: 30-27. Rarely seen such a final stage in a World Cup preliminary round.
His second match against French veteran Joel Switala was not that good, but the qualification was never in danger. Ceulemans even finished fifth with 1.463 average in the winner group of 24 players.
Korean Hyun Min Seo topped the ranking like on the first day with four match points and 2.222 average ahead of Mehmet Aksoy (1.621), Ra Hee Kim (1.500) and three players with 1.463: Yeon Chi Cho, Bart Ceulemans and Alfonso Legazpi. Also in the top are Özden Selim (1.428), Tae Hyun Lee (1.304), Gerhard Kostistansky (1.276) and Allan Jensen (1.153).
Eighteen of 24 seeded players finished the day over one average. Murat Celik is the first sub with 1.628, Serdar Bas second with 1.404. The European junior champion Omer Karakurt was eliminated with two losses.
The most interesting groups on the third day:
Group A with Hyun Min Seo and Carloman Ortiz
Group B with Christian Rudolph and Mehmet Aksoy
Group C with three Koreanen Hyung Bum Hwang, Ra Hee Kim and Young Chull Kim
Group E with Minh Cam Ma, Bart Ceulemans and Ruben Legazpi
Group F with Savas Bulut and Alfonso Legazpi
Group I with Gerhard Kostistansky, Anh Vu Duong and Therese Klompenhouwer
Group M with Jean Reverchon and Xuan Cuong Ma
Group N with Jose Maria Mas and Quoc Nguyen Nguyen.