3-Cushion
LOMMEL - Kurt Ceulemans and Steven Van Acker will play for the qualification in the last match of the evening for Group B. The Belgian champion Eddy Merckx is almost certainly the winner of the group with two wins and the highest average. Steven van Acker plays against Martin Spoormans in his last match. The veteran seems to be eliminated after two losses. Kurt Ceulemans faces Eddy Merckx in his last match for the preliminaries.
Steven Van Acker seems to have the best chances in the denouement of the group, because Merckx played with a lot of confidence and showed again the form which makes him so strong. He defeated Spoormans in his first match in eighteen innings (40-14, average 2.222) and ran over Steven van Acker in his second 40-30 in 21 innings.
Kurt Ceulemans recovered after a curious start (40-39 loss against Van Acker) with a great performance against Spoormans. The sun of the legend was the first who made a run of ten in that match, which he won 40-23 in 24 innings.
In the first evening session the fireworks came from the match between Steven van Acker and Kurt Ceulemans. Van Acker was the first who came to the finish, thanks to a run of 9 in the last part of the match. Kurt Ceulemans missed his matchball and lost 40-39.
The B-group of the tournament is played with the oldest (Martin Spoormans, 61) and youngest (Steven Van Acker, 26) player of the Superprestige. Steven Van Acker from Eeklo, who is working for the newspaper De Eeclonaar in his daily life, is one of the young talents at the Belgian three-cushion sky. He plays for the strong Belgian team of BC Deurne this year which is with Dick Jaspers, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Davy van Havere, Ludo Dielis and Therese Klompenhouwer a big challenger for the title.
The young Belgian showed that he can be cold-blooded in the final sprint of a match this evening. When Ceulemans led the score 36-30, Van Acker attacked with nine. He missed his last point, saw Ceulemans come back to 39, but then finished the match in the 37th inning.
Eddy Merckx made a very strong impression in his first appearance. He quickly took the initiative against Spoormans, including a run of eight in that match and averaged 2.222. In his second match against Van Acker he assured himself almost certainly of the qualification.