PORTO - The tension for the top four positions and a place in the European Cup final for club teams was bigger than expected this Saturday night. Tickets for the final day (Sunday) were expensive in FC Porto's billiard arena. FBN Tekstil's Turks had already qualified in two games of the second round of play and could play freely in the last match against FC Porto. Andernos, the best team after the qualifiers, lost the winning rhythm in the second session, played a draw against the Spaniards of Castalla and lost its third match against the Danes of Varde 6-2. As a result, not Andernos, but Castalla will advance to the semi-finals.
The matches are:
9.30 (Portuguese time):
FBN Tekstil Spor Kulubu-Club Billar Castalla
In the next session: Varde BK-FC Porto
The Danish team with Eddy Merckx and Jean Paul de Bruijn climbed over Andernos to first place. Andernos became dependent on Castalla, which played in its last match against Goztepe Spor Kulubu. The outcome was that FBN Tekstil and FC Porto became numbers 1 and 2 in Group A and Varde and Castalla qualified in Group B. The four other teams were eliminated for the title race: Mister 100 Lier, Billiards Café, Andernos and Goztepe survived the qualifiers but failed to reach the podium.
The apotheosis in the two groups featured exceptionally strong matches with superb performances by Berkay Karakurt on the FBN Tekstil team and for the Varde team's leader Eddy Merckx and his fellow players Jean Paul de Bruijn and Thomas Andersen, who beat Andernos 6-2.
Eddy Merckx led his team on centercourt against Marco Zanetti, the match that the Belgian won 40-17 in 18 innings. Jean Paul de Bruijn beat Roland Forthomme by a generous score (40-18 in 18) and Thomas Andersen achieved his top form for the first time. The Dane won against Gwendal Maréchal, who had played two brilliant games, but was now beaten by Andersen 40-25 in 13. For the Andernos team, it was a big setback that they did not make it to the semi-finals. The French finished equal in match points with Castalla, had a better average, but the Spaniards had more individual match points.
The prestige match between FBN Tekstil and FC Porto, in which the Portuguese had to stay ahead of at least Mister 100 on average, also showed high-class billiards, including Berkay Karakurt, who had earlier finished a match of 40 in 10 innings, his best match of his career so far. Berkay, the youngest of two Karakurt brothers, Europe's No 2 and one of the main talents in European billiards, put Torbjörn Blomdahl behind 33-8 in eight innings by an early run of 12. He beat the multiple world champion 40-25 in 18 innings. Tayfun Tasdemir (who shone with a run of 19 in his first game of this round) and Dick Jaspers levelled for a long time, as did Jose Miguel Soares and Murat Tüzül. Jaspers had the better final sprint against Tasdemir 40-33 in 20. FC Porto nevertheless lost the match against Tekstil 6-2, but still finished second in this group on average.
The players who remained unbeaten with the averages in this second round were:
Berkay Karakurt (Tekstil) 6 points and 2,000
Dick Jaspers (FC Porto) 6 points, 1.935
Eddy Merckx (Varde) 6 points and 1.904
Jean Paul de Bruijn (Varde) 6-1,463
Murat Tüzül (Tekstil) 6-1,276
Andres Carrion (Castalla) 6-1,153
Jerry Hermans (Mister 100) 6-1,100
Gwendal Maréchal, with four match points, achieved the highest moyennes of the 32 players in this second round. The Frenchman finished with 2,441. Marco Zanetti with 2 match points and 1,612.
Other players with 4 points:
Tayfun Tasdemir, 1.637 average
Sergio Jimenez, 1.513
- Tarik Yavuz, 1.471
Torbjörn Blomdahl, 1.458
Bart Ceulemans, 1.271
Gökhan Salman, 1,252
The rankings of the eight teams in this round:
Group A:
FBN Tekstil Spor Kulubu 6-1,484-14
FC Porto 3-1,368-10
Mister 100 Lier 3-1,128-10
Billiards Café 0-0.947-10
Group B:
- Varde 4-1,307-11
- Club Billar Castalla 3-1,202-11 (12 individual match points
- Andernos 3-1,498-16 (10 individual points)
- Goztepe Spor Kulubu 2-1,323-11
The BK Varde team with Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Thomas Andersen and Allan Schröder
The FC Porto team with Dick Jaspers and Torbjörn Blomdahl (right)