DOUARNENEZ - The Douarnenez Valdys golden team has made history in the classical games. The team with one Frenchman, one Dutchman and one Czech won the title for the fourth consecutive time in the European team championship for classical games after the successes in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The magical trio, consisting of Dutchman Raymund Swertz, Czech Marek Faus and Frenchman Grégory Le Deventec once again proved the strongest at their home billiard venue.
The team from Finistère is now only one title behind the record of Dutch club Cubri Etikon (Henri Tilleman, Patrick Niessen, Jean Paul de Bruijn), the five-time European winner from 2008 to 2014.
The key to this success is, of course, the choice of players and their performances in the classic games. Raymund Swertz and Gregory Le Deventec are the two common elements of the recipe in the four winning campaigns. Pierre Soumagne (2018-2019) and Marek Faus (2020-2023) in the 71/2 balkline share the titles with two each. Both players in the Brittany team (Swertz and Le Deventec) remained unbeaten in five matches this weekend, with Swertz being a great springboard to build confidence among his fellow players. The Dutchman inspired his team by bringing in the first match points with his superb rhythm in the 47/2 game. The second win needed for the final victory usually comes from Gregory Le Deventec in one cushion. The team can then already cheer without worrying about the result of the match in frame 71/2.
It must be said that the Coupe d'Europe for classical teams is a French affair since the disappearance of the big European teams. The last three editions, organized in Douarnenez, have been dominated by French clubs with three of four teams in the last four and three finalists of French origin: Chartres in 2019, Oissel in 2020 and Ronchin in 2023.
Douarnenez club president Jacky Le Deventec and his protégés can now look forward to the coming years, aiming to match and then surpass Cubri Etikon's record of victories.
In the eight-team qualifier, Douarnenez Valdys won three and lost only one of its nine individual matches, with Marek Faus beaten by Dutchman Gert-Jan Veldhuizen (De Hazelaar) in 71/2. Raymund Swertz played 1,000 points in 10 innings alternating 250 points in 2 or 3 innings, Gregory Le Deventec recorded 8.37 in one cushion, Marek Faus 25.26 in 71/2. Second place in the group, qualification for the semi-finals on Sunday, went to Dutch club De Hazelaar (Jordi Kanters in 47/2, Gert-Jan Veldhuizen in 71/2, Eric Derricks in bandstoten). The team had its star player in Gert-Jan Veldhuizen: he remained unbeaten in his four matches during this competition.
German club Sterkrade (Micha Van Bochem and Michael Woidowski in balk-lines, Uwe Matuszak in one cushion), came third ahead of Belgian club Noorderkempen (Robby Sonck 47/2, Ronny Mathysen 71/2 and Nico Van Henegem one cushion).
In the other group, BCCO Ronchin (Brahim Djoubri 47/2, Jean-François Florent 71/2, Bernard Villiers one cushion) achieved the same performance as Douarnenez Valdys with eight individual wins out of nine. Only Brahim Djoubri lost to Benoît Deziles-Legros in 47/2, Florent and Villiers were unbeaten at this stage. Second place went to BC Andernos (Benoît Deziles-Legros 47/2, Nicolas Gérassimopoulos 71/2, Bernard Baudoin one cushion) with 7 individual wins out of 9 including Deziles-Legros' 3 victories. The Spanish club of Molins (Carlos Tuset 47/2, Alvaro Gomez 71/2, Antoni Guttierez one cushion) came 3rd, the German club of Merklinde (Christian Pöther 47/2, Martijn Egbers 71/2, Roland Gries one cushion) finished fourth.
Douarnenez beat in the semi-finals its French opponent Andernos 6-0. Early in the match, Le Deventec was already ahead 80-9 at the break against Baudoin. Swertz and Faus quickly ran to a lead against Deziles-Legros and Gérassimopoulos. In the second inning, Swertz brought the first points to his team (250-45 in) and Le Deventec concretised the final victory (120-54 in 8).
In the other semi-final, Bernard Villiers was the first winner, 120-35 in 12 innings, Jean-François Florent lost to Gert-Jan Veldhuizen 97-200 in 10 innings. The decision fell in the Djoubri-Kanters match. The Dutchman led 169-115 in the 10th innings, but Brahim Djoubri was able to play the French team to victory.
Raymund Swertz delivered in the final match a recital against Brahim Djoubri with a perfect run of 250 in the 4th inning (250-41). At that point Gregory Le Deventec was 40 points down to Bernard Villiers (71-31), but he came back with a 44 run. The end of the match was tactical, the pressure was high with some errors on both sides. In the end, the strongest was the Breton player. He gifted the 4th title to his teammates with a score 120-100 in 21 innings. The match in 71/2 between Florent and Faus was stopped while the Ronchin player led 179-45 in 14, when the Czech came back with a run of 64 .
As in the first edition of the event in 2008, Ronchin won his second silver medal. Andernos and De Hazelaar were the bronze medallists.
The individual performances in the various disciplines show that only a dozen players really acted at European level, including nine within the three French teams.
The Douarnenez championteam with Marek Faus, Raymund Swertz and Gregory Le Deventec
Raymund Swertz, star player again at the European cup final
Individual ranking 47/2 (match points, average):
1 Raymund Swertz 10-89.28
2 Benoît Deziles-Legros 6-31.80
3 Brahim Djoubri 6-17.00
4 Jordy Kanters 6-16.50
5 Robby Sonck 2-11.33
6 Michael Woidowski 2-10.69
7 Carlos Tuset 2-8.67
8 Christian Pöther 0-10.36
Balkline 71/2:
1 Gert-Jan Veldhuizen 8-21.05
2 Marek Faus 6-26.03 (final match not included)
3 Jean-François Florent 6-19.91 (match of final not taken into account)
4 Nicolas Gérassimopoulos 4-16.75
5 Martijn Egbers 2-15.76
6 Micha van Bochem 2-12.67
7 Ronny Mathysen 0-13.12
8 Alvaro Gomez 0-4.90
One cushion:
1 Grégory Le Deventec 10-8.33
2 Bernard Villiers 8-6.10
3 Bernard Baudoin 4-5.70
4 Uwe Matuszak 3-3.84
5 Antoni Guttierez 2-5.23
6 Nico Van Henegem 2-2.58
7 Eric Dericks 1-2.84
8 Roland Gries 0-3.68.