LOMMEL – Once they were inseparable teammates for Ockenburgh and with Dutchmen Jean Paul de Bruijn and Henk Habraken they won a sensational Dutch team title. The Belgians in that team, Roland Forthomme and Martin Spoormans, who both secured spots in the quarter final of the Cuvino Superprestige this evening, have a special bond since those fine years in Zeeland.
They stood head to head this evening in Lommel, in a match that was key to advancement. Forthomme was the favorite, because the “Belge du Bassin” as he sometimes calls himself, has won two of the last three editions of this tournament and travelled to Lommel as a man on a mission.
Privately he looks relaxed, in his new relationship with Dutch three cushion player Karina Jetten. They played the former Sang Lee tournament in New York together, and Roland won third place with an excellent average of 1.658. It took Torbjörn Blomdahl, in a strange match (35-33 in 17 innings) to keep him out of the final.
So Roland Forthomme is hot, and he showed that, in the group he was supposed to dominate. In the first session he started off well (17 – 10 in 9, run of 9), and beat Henk Blauwblomme 40 – 18 in 22.
Martin Spoormans, in his battle against Davy van Havere looked at a 37-31 deficit. The allround billiard player showed he had an extra gear, ran 8 but got kissed out on the last point. Davy van Havere also could not score (another kiss) and Spoormans closed out the match.
Because winners meet in the second session, Forthomme and Spoormans knew the victor of their encounter could book a ticket for the final rounds.
Roland Forthomme always had the upper hand in an amusing match. Especially in the stages when he had a good lead (22 – 11, and 30 – 13, having gone to that last score from 11 – 11 in 3 innings time!), Spoormans demonstrated his unique ability to produce unintentional cannons.
Spoormans had a furtive smile, and even petted his opponent on the head. Forthomme’s smile was good-natured, his lead was commanding and he finished the match 40 – 28 in 25.
This made it clear who the winner of the flight would be: Forthomme on 4 points and 1.538 was basically out of reach for the guys on two points: van Havere (1.400) who beat Blauwblomme in his second match, and Spoormans (1.214).
The second ticket to the quarters would therefore be earned in the third round of the evening, with Forthomme playing van Havere and Spoormans playing Blauwblomme. Martin Spoormans got the better of Blauwblomme by two points, in 35 innings. Davy van Havere was 4 points short against Forthomme.
That put Forthomme and Spoormans, in that order, in the final round. Today (thursday), the flight with Peter Ceulemans, Eddy Leppens, Kurt Ceulemans and Steven van Acker will take to the stage.