Best winners, Dutch glory and tough knock-outs

BERLICUM - The best of all winners in the sixteen groups of preliminary rounds at the European Championship was Dutchman Jeffrey Jorissen with 4 match points and 1,777 on average, followed by Roland Forthomme with 1.702, Rui Manuel Costa with 1.666, Jean van Erp and Berkay Karakurt with 1.454 and Jérôme Barbeillon with 1.379. The remarkable outcome of 48 matches in these qualifications was that six of seven players of Dutch glory were promoted to the main draw with 32, in which the best European 16 players, led by titleholder Dick Jaspers, enter for the knock-out rounds.

The Belgian giant Roland Forthomme and Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon shone with the best matches (40 in 18), the Greek Evangelis Moulos with the best run of 14. The last Dutchman in the arena, Jeffrey Jorissen, who never played a European Championship before, was the much better in the late evening of brand new Danish champion Jacob Sörensen, who was far behind his opponent. The Hague player f missed his last carom in the 18th inning on a score 39-16, but then scored the winning hit one shot later.

The match between Jérôme Barbeillon and Thomas Andersen, in the penultimate session of the preliminaries, was the most exciting fight in the decisive rounds. The Dane attacked towards the end of the match with runs of eight, two and six to a score of 39, the Frenchman came back with five and put the score at 39-39, after which Andersen missed his last and Barbeillon made the liberating last point.

The sixteenth finals for Thursday:

12.30:
Dick Jaspers-Jérôme Barbeillon
Peter Ceulemans-Jeffrey Jorissen
Murat Naci Coklu-Dave Christiani
Dion Nelin-Gerhard Kostistansky

15.00:
Eddy Merckx-Radek Novak
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Berkay Karakurt
Semih Sayginer-Jean van Erp
Tayfun Tasdemir-Tom Löwe

17.30:
Marco Zanetti-Roland Uijtdewillegen
Ruben Legazpi-Rui Costa
Jérémy Bury-Raymund Swertz
Martin Horn-Jose Maria Mas

20.00:
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Jean Paul de Bruijn
Lütfi Cenet-Lukas Stamm
Michael Nilsson-Roland Forthomme
Dani Sánchez-Ronny LindemannBest winners, Dutch glory and tough knock-outs

The overview of the sixteen groups:

Group A:
Portuguese Rui Manuel Costa started with a generous win over Kenan Canturk (40-21 in 31) and finished with an excellent match against Fabrizio Cortese (40-9 in 19), putting the multiple Portuguese champion in the top of the rankings.
Group B:
Berkay Karakurt played his best match to take off against Carlos Crespo (40-26 in 26), saw the Spaniard win over Herbert Szivacz, but then beat the Austrian in the last match 40-30 in 29.
Group C:
Raymund Swertz slipped through the eye of the needle, when Omer Karakurt did not finish with 8 in the first match, but missed when he had the equaliser for grabs. The result was that Swertz won 40-39 and the Dutchman could later close with the group win against Martin Bohac with 40-27 in 30.
Group D:
Roland Forthomme showed an excellent form in his matches against Radovan Hajek (40-30 in 29) and Vangelis Moulos (40-18 in 18) and topped the ranking behind Jeffrey Jorissen with 1,702 general. Moulos made the best run of the preliminaries with 14 in his match against Hajek.
Group E:
Jean van Erp, one of the home favorite boys, went past Emilio Sciacca easily (40-12 in 21), had a bit more trouble with youngster Maxime Panaia, but beat the Frenchman in the final sprint 40-30 in 34.
Group F:
German Lukas Stamm made a strong impression in the preliminary stage to the main tournament, but just had very little opposition from Giuseppe Longo from Italy and Cetin Behzat from Switzerland, whom he defeated 40-31 and 40-18.
Group G:
Roland Uijtdewillegen, the substitute, was the stuntman of this group by advancing to the main draw. The Dutchman first beat Yavuz Güngördü 40-33 (run 11), started very poor against Francis Forton (8 in 22), but finished great with 32 in his last 12 innings.
Group H:
Jose Maria Mas faced a dangerous opponent in his first match, but beat Mikaël Devogelaere 40-26 in 30. The Frenchman was much stronger in his second match against Kokkoris (40-36 in 26) and then saw Mas also win over the Greek, 40-32 in 42.
Group I:
Dave Christiani had two close finishes, which he was able to turn into a narrow win twice. First by a score 40-39 against Nalle Olsson, the Swede lost again 40-39 to Cengiz Karaca and in the last match Christiani broke the resistance of the German: 40-38 in 27.
Group J:
Jean Paul de Bruijn, the first one who was allowed to come in (for Andrade) was not in his best form yet. The Dutch Master did get through his preliminary round without much trouble: wins against Frédéric Mottet (40-23 in 35) and David Pennör (40-33 in 33).
Group K:
Tom Löwe is one of the youngest players to enter the main tournament after his two wins. The German first triumphed against Dionisis Tsokantas (40-37 in 43) and then against Raimond Burgman 40-38 in 30.
Group L:
Jérôme Barbeillon may be enjoying the end game against Thomas Andersen, in which he escaped with a 1 point lead over the Dane (2.222 and 2.166 average), after first drawing against Simon Blondeel with 40-40 in 40 innings. What a narrow escape, Jérôme.
Group M:
Jeffrey Jorissen launched his European campaign in a promising way by victories over Cédric Melnytschenko (40-28 in 26) and a superior last win against Jacob Sörensen with 40-16 in 19.
Group N:
Austrian Gerhard Kostistansky and Portuguese Jose Miguel Soares battled it out for the final qualification late Wednesday night. Both won earlier in the day over Finn Sauli Solhagen, Kostistansky finished against Soares after a long fight 40-37 in 36 innings.
Group O:
Radek Novak and Arnim Kahofer battled for group wins in the final match, after both players had beaten poor Norwegian Lars-Harald Rüber 40-14 and 40-17. Novak grabbed the upper hand in the match against Kahofer in the final stages, went out on 40-34 and saw the Austrian score 4 more times (40-38).
Group P:
Turgay Orak took an option on the group win against Brian Hansen (40-19 in 21), Ronny Lindemann played a draw against Brian Hansen in 27 innings, but the German went to a thunderous surprise, when he took the match against Orak with a run of 11 in 40-35 in 25. Lindemann qualified, Orak eliminated.

The final ranking in match points and average (top ten) in the preliminaries
1 Jeffrey Jorissen, 4, 1.777
2 Roland Forthomme 4, 1.702
3 Rui Costa 4, 1.666
4 Jean van
5 Berkay Karakurt 4, 1.454
6 Raymund Swertz 4, 1.333
7 Lukas Stamm 4, 1.311
8 Dave Christiani 4, 1.290
9 Jean Paul de Bruijn 4, 1.176
10 Jose Maria Mas 4, 1,111
11 Tom Löwe 4, 1.095
12 Roland Uijtdewillegen 4, 1,095

Roland Forthomme, the best to follow Jeffrey Jorissen in the ranking

Jérôme Barbeillon, saved by a miraculous escape

Ronny Lindemann beat strong Turk Turgay Orak in the final splrint