3-Cushion
HOOGLEDE - It seemed to be a mission impossible, but Davy van Havere finished the battle for the Belgian Cup with a small miracle. The young, 29-year-old player from Capelle grabbed the cup after a thriller in the final against Eddy Merckx: he won in five sets. The apotheosis was indescribable: the new cup holder, successor of Frédéric Caudron, made in the deciding set on an 8-4 score two brilliant caroms and then finished with a run of seven: 15-4.
The showdown in the billiardroom with a passionately empathetic audience was fantastic. The winner had showed himself so far a stoic player, but after he made his winning point he raised his arms and shouted his joy through the arena.
Eddy Merckx could only admire the last run of his opponent, sitting on his chair, amazed by the class of this new cupholder.
He was the favorite to grab the double himself, Eddy Merckx, because earlier this year he won the title of champion in the Belgian final against Caudron. But sometimes logic does not exist in three-cushion. Davy van Havere started very strongly in the final with a 15-10 win in the first set. He lost the second in a 19 innings marathon set 15-13, then won the third again 15-14, saw Merckx fight back again (15-10 in 8), but finished superior and unapproachable in the final set.
The applause of the audience was warm and more than deserved. Davy van Havere almost blushed when he received all the congratulations from his teammates, the public and all those people who wanted to know how he had managed to beat the world class player Eddy Merckx. ,,I absolutely can't believe it how this could happen'', said the man who seemed to perform without any stress and on a very high level during the entire tournament.
It was already a stunning sensation that he had qualified with his BC Deurne team, together with Steven van Acker, Ludo Dielis and Jef Gijsels for the European cup finals two weeks ago, beating amongst others a Turkish world class team. The Belgian Cup is another, even much bigger highlight Davy van Havere's career. On the Belgian Cup palmares in 24 years, we can find only really big names with Frédéric Caudron as winner of the recent five editions.
That the number one of the world was'nt on the list of participants was seen as a little mistake. The Belgian president Reginald Depoorter admitted that the open draw in the qualification was not a great success. Therefor Caudron and Merckx faced in the prelims: Caudron was outplayed by his opponent. ,,I think next season it will not happen again like this'', Depoorter said.
In the matches for the other places in top eight, Peter De Backer defeated Peter Ceulemans 2-1 for third place, Jef Philipoom won the match for fifth place against Frank de Groof 2-0 and Luc Salvo grabbed seventh place with a win against Martin Spoormans.