GRAVELINES - In the French team competition, three matches were played in the two groups on Friday, including two great performances for Dick Jaspers and Nikos Polychronopoulos. Therefore, the Intermarché team put in the best performance in Group B with a collective average over 1.700 in the away match against Gravelines (0.978). The quartet from Gironde won all four games.
Dick Jaspers and Nikos Polychronopoulos were the top scorers of the day with 40 points in 15 innings, giving them a collective average of 2.667.
Philippe Vandendriessche scored 14 points against the world number one, while Martin Spoormans made 17 points against the Greek. Francis Connesson beat Frédéric Begin by almost 1,500 (40-29 in 27) and Marc Boingnères beat Marc Vitse 40-32 in 37.
The other match in Group B saw Douarnenez beat Prevalrisk (1,037) at home Saint-Quentin (0,955) 6-2, without their leader Robinson Morales and his possible replacement Jose Maria Mas, who are both staying in Spain. That cost the reigning French champions from Saint-Quentin the win, because only Johan Loncelle was able to shine with 40-20 in 19 (2,105) against Steven Van Acker. There was also a 40-31 win by Francis Fortin over Kevin Perrotin in 40, a 40-24 win by Grégory Le Deventec over Matthieu Franck in 32 and a 40-34 win by Vincent Lelièvre over Nathan Duriez in 44.
Intermarché is officially the 1st team to qualify for the Final Four, because with two games left in the regular season, the team (1,288 on average) has a total of 8 points, Saint-Quentin (1,103) and Gravelines (1,087) 3 points and Douarnenez Prevalrisk (1,082) 2 points. All is still possible for these three teams to secure the second place in the Final Four.
Andernos and Albert played a draw the day before: 4-4 in Group A. The second match in this group was between Soissons and Courbevoie in Aisne. The hosts from Soissons won 6-2, with the only defeat of their leader Jérémy Bury against Vahit Kunt 40-22 in 24 innings. An excellent performance by the French number 16 against the number 1! Eddy Merckx beat David Gallais 40-19 in 20, Pierre Soumagne won against Jean-Jacques Boudin 40-30 in 30 and Mikaël Devogelaere was the better against Richard Bitalis 40-32 in 31.
Andernos (1.340 average) leads in Group A with 7 points, followed by Soissons (1.508), 6 points, Albert (1.195), 3 points and Courbevoie (0.993), 0 points.