MARXUQUERA – May we convey just a little excuse for a bit minor session? What do you say, a minor session? Yes, actually we can say that after Frédéric Caudron's demonstration in the previous round. But what do you think about the runs of fourteen and ten that Dick Jaspers ran at the start of the evening and Caudron's ten, with which he stabilized his lead (485-384 in 214 innings).
We can say there were some highlights in the last match, but still: the survival race, the tiredness, the constant load up for a new fight, the concentration and the extreme heat have taken their toll. The averages of the eight session show that: Caudron 1.857, Jaspers 1.343.
The Spanish referee Jose Vicente, who keeps up the score from his chair on the stage, behind the Kozoom scoreboard, told us that at most three or four days in a year that the temperature in this part of Spain can rise to 38, 40 degrees and sometimes even slightly more. And what a coincidence: exactly in these days of the Juanjo Trilles Challenge, the heat has fallen like a woolen blanket over the mountainous area around Gandia.
,,Phew, what an attack'', sighed Dick Jaspers in the heat of the day between two sessions. ,,I get headaches when I go outside only for ten or fifteen minutes,'' said Frédéric Caudron.
Jaspers: ,,We are spoiled with everything here, it is perfectly arranged, only we don't have air conditioning in the room. So sleeping is not that easy with forty degrees in the room. I have a ventilator, but I have to be careful, otherwise I get a cold.''
Two sessions before the end, there was a slight hesitation, a silence before the storm perhaps?
But what will bring the Challenge us tomorrow in the last two sessions? Dick Jaspers already said: ,,I can never win this match, now I'm so far behind, because Caudron is simply the best.''
Both players are eager to give the match a spectacular finish, whatever the score is. The winner may be almost known, it can only lead to a final sprint without stress, to a final demonstration of high class three cushion.
The Juanjo Trilles Challenge for sure deserves that great finish.
The score in the eighth session:
Score after seven sessions:
Caudron-Jaspers
420-337 in 180 innings
186th inning: 426-353
193th inning: 436-368
200th inning: 444-375
201st inning: 454-377
209th inning: 470-379
214th inning: 485-384
Averages:
Caudron 2.256, Jaspers 1.794.
Highest runs:
Jaspers 21, Caudron 16.