PORTO – The preliminary rounds in the European Cup for club teams will be decided today, Friday, in Porto. In the five groups, the group winners and one best runner-up qualify for the final with eight teams. FC Porto, the organizer, and Varde BK, the title holder, enter the tournament on Saturday, with knockout matches taking place on the last two days. In the early Portuguese morning (11.00 in Western Europe), Soissons plays against Neusiedl with Caudron-Hofman on centre court.
Dutchman Frans van Kuyk, who plays for Team Eekhoorn, was one of the best winners on the second day of the qualifiers. He defeated his opponent with 40 in 17 innings, averaging 2.352. Ruben Legazpi from Mostoles won a match in 20, Sam van Etten from Weywiesen in 23, Martin Horn from Pottendorfer and Glenn Hofman from Neusiedl in 22 innings, Marco Zanetti from Andernos in 23 innings.
The leaders in the five groups so far are Club Billar Mostoles in Group A, Pottendorfer in Group B, Weywiesen in Group C, Göztepe Spor in Group D and Soissons in Group E. The decisive matches are today.
At 10:00 a.m. (Portuguese time), the French team from Soissons will play against the Austrians from Neusiedl in Group E. The matches are Caudron-Hofman, Bury-Kostistansky, Soumagne-Maurer and Devogelaere-Zenkner.
The teams from Göztepe and Eekhoorn will meet in Group D at 11:45, with matches including Tasdemir-Polychronopoulos, Kiraz-Ceulemans and Karakurt-Van Kuyk.
Weywiesen (Sam van Etten/Amir Ibraimov) and Mr. 100 (Celen/Hens) will play at 1.30, Pottendorfer (Sidhom/Horn) and Cues&Darts (Philipoom/Klompenhouwer) at 15.15, and Mostoles (Legazpi/Fernandez)-Andernos (Zanetti/Forthomme/Maréchal/Barbeillon) will close the day at 17.00.
Glenn Hofman meets Frédéric Caudron in the early matches
Frans van Kuyk played the best match
The overall standings at the top:
Göztepe Spor 6-1,340-12
Club Billar Mostoles 4-0,957-10
Soissons 4-1,563-11
Pottendorfer 4-1,210
Weywiesen 4-0,878-8
Team Eekhoorn 6-1,358-11
BC Neusiedl 4-1,013-11
Andernos 4-1,228-9
Mister 100 4-0,696-7
Cues&Darts 3-1,093-7