SCHILTIGHEIM - Frédéric Caudron knows as no-one else, that three losses in a row are very exceptional for a player with his palmares. The Belgian all-rounder, who showed a slightly lesser forms for a few weeks, never felt in a vale of tears and never panicked himself.
Eddy Leppens said after a match in the Belgian league this week, when Roland Forthomme had knocked down the laureled world class player: ,,I saw Fred five minutes after the match joking and lauphing like always.''
Frédéric Caudron climbed impressive out of his short slump this evening. He outsprinted Peter Ceulemans, the man who was in such a great form for some weeks, with a riant score: 50-14 in 18 innings. Two runs of ten marked the cat-and-mouse match.
Caudron crowned the first performance of the Agipi team, that tormented the team of Albert 8-0. Marco Zanetti was much stronger as well on the other table than Kurt Ceulemans: 50-27 in 29 innings.
Jérémy Bury scooped victory earlier in the session against his young opponent Cédric Melnytschenko, in a match that was marred by an incident with the referee (50-21 in 39). Jean-Chistoph Roux completed the success of Agipi with a comfortable knock down: 50-36 in 44 against Kévin Perrotin.
Laxou, one of three other contenders for the title in the French league, bested Gravelines thanks to his topguns in the line-up, who lifted the 2-2 score after the break to 6-2 win. Eric Kremer-Leclaire won against Gino Gremain (50-43 in 48), Pierre Soumagne lost to Frédéric Roelants, 50-37 in 40 before the break.
Torbjörn Blomdahl and Martin Horn were superior in the games against the Belgians Martin Spoormans and Ronny Daniels. They flaunted with riant scores.
Blomdahl ran in a steady rhythm to 50-27 in 26 innings and so notched up his first win. Horn just needed five innings more to pass the finish: 50-24.
Therefore Agipi, Andernos and Laxou took the lead after one round in the competition. The first top billing in the league with six teams is on 31 January as Agipi and Andernos meet.