LAUSANNE - The top ranked players in the field of three cushion, Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Marco Zanetti, are the main stars at the 2016 Lausanne Billard Masters this week. Two groups of five high class players come to the start in the prestigious event. The European CEB board member Diane Wild is the organizer. All matches are broadcast live on kozoom.com
The LBL tournament is played in the Casino Montbenon in Lausanne from 2 until 4 December and broadcast live on Kozoom. Dick Jaspers, who is last year's winner and Frédéric Caudron are on top of the two groups in the preliminaries.
Diane Wild and her team are hosting the LBM for the fourth time in a row. ,,I am very, very happy that we have been able to organize the tournament for four years already. When we started it, I never could have thought that we could continue for years. But fortunately we have a lot of volunteers who come back every year to help us. That gives us a great satisfaction, because most of them don't have any connection with the billiard sport.''
Talking about the expectations for the audience and other interested people, Diane says: ,,We can only wait and hope for a big audience. The difficulty is that billiards is not so very popular in Switzerland. Not so many people play carom billiard, so it is a big challenge. The Lausanne Billiard Masters has the main goal to promote our sport. Let's hope it will be a huge success again.''
The opening ceremony of the LBM is on Friday, December 2nd at 14.00. Three days of high-level three cushion are guarenteed.
The prize money is:
2000 euros for the eight foreign players for participation.
The winner is rewarded by 2.000 euros, the second by 1.500, the numbers three and four by 900 euros.
For each won match the players receive 350 euros.
There are bonuses of 150 euros for a run of 10 or more, 350 for 15 and more, 800 for 20 and more, 450 for a match in 15 innings or less and 800 euros for the best overall average.
The field includes eight players from the top twelve of the world. Furthermore, two Swiss players have been invited.
The group format:
Group A:
Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
Marco Zanetti (Italy)
Dani Sánchez (Spain)
Jae Ho Cho (South Korea)
Michel Boulaz (Switzerland)
Group B:
Frédéric Caudron (Belgium)
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
Jérémy Bury (France)
Dong Koong Kang (South Korea)
Xavier Gretillat (Switzerland).
The entrance fees are 70 Swiss francs for three days.
The tournament organization will again cooperate with the Foundation Merck, which helps people with multiple sclerosis. The Foundation pays five Swiss francs for every carom. The revenue in 2013, 2014 and 2015 was 5.950, 7.935 and 7.255 Sw. Francs.
Website: www.lausannebillardmasters.ch
The match schedule:
Friday:
14:30:
Zanetti-Cho
Jaspers-Boulaz
16:45:
Blomdahl-Kang
Caudron-Gretillat
19:00:
Sánchez-Boulaz
Jaspers-Cho
21:15:
Bury-Gretillat
Caudron-Kang
Saturday:
10:00:
Jaspers-Sánchez
Zanetti-Boulaz
12:15:
Caudron-Bury
Blomdahl-Gretillat
14:30:
Cho-Boulaz
Zanetti-Sánchez
16:45:
Kang-Gretillat
Blomdahl-Bury
19:00:
Jaspers-Zanetti
Sánchez-Cho
21:15:
Caudron-Blomdahl
Bury-Kang
Sunday:
10:00, 12:00:
Semi-finals
14:30:
Final.