PARIS – In an evening with all the French top-division teams, Soissons maintained its lead, Saint Quentin, Andernos, and Blois Doozy are followers by just one point and Dick Jaspers emerged victorious with the best score among 40 players in ten teams. The Dutchman sharpened his form in a match against Jean Reverchon: 40-13 in 14 innings, averaging 2.857. With his Saint Quentin team, Jaspers achieved the biggest victory of this third round, defeating Courbevois La Defense with an undisputed 0-8 victory. Besides Jaspers, Johan Loncelle (40 in 34), Kévin Perrotin (40 in 47), and Nathan Duriez (40 in 34) all were successful. The home team finished with a mere 0.751 average.
The Soissons top team traveled to Andernos for the away match against Intermarché and held on to their maximum score in three rounds. Eddy Merckx led his team with a good win against Frédéric Mottet (40-23 in 20), Jean Paul de Bruijn defeated Marc Boingneres 40-33 in 33, and Jérémy Bury narrowly edged out Dimitrios Seleventas 40-38 in 37. The league leaders' only loss came at the hands of Kevin Vasseur, who fell far short against Leo Dubernet (40-19 in 34).
Among the pursuers, Blois Doozy pulled off an important victory against Colmar, a strong opponent but lost 3-5. This was thanks in part to Glenn Hofman, who drew with Omer Karakurt on center court in 26 innings, including a run of 13. Sameh Sidhom lost his match against Thorsten Frings 40-33 in 21 innings, so the German's best match was 1.904. Mikaël Devogelaere and Maxime Panais were match-winners for Blois in 24 and 28 innings. Blois achieved the highest team average of the evening with 1.545. Colmar, playing with Karakurt, Frings, Haby, and Riotto, made a good impression with 1.434.
Andernos is the third-place finisher at Soissons, having defeated Douarnenez 6-2. The most exciting match was between Raymund Swertz and Nick Polychronopoulos, with the all-rounder Swertz winning 40-39 in 27 innings. Roland Forthomme won for Andernos against his compatriot Steven van Acker 40-24 in 24 innings, while Gwendal Maréchal and Jérôme Barbeillon won in 24 and 29 innings. Andernos remained in the top three of the evening, just shy of Blois's average: 1.545 for Blois, 1.528 for Andernos. Retro Albertin bounced back from the match against the second team of Blois Doozy with a 2-6 victory, thanks in part to Cédric Melnytschenko with 40 in 21 innings and Belgians Peter Ceulemans with 40 in 29 innings and Jef Philipoom with 40 in 31 innings. Thierry Roxo was the only player to lose, to Cyril Miossec in 39 innings.
Retro Albert is the team with the best average in the rankings: 1.386.
The teams of Soissons (r) and Andernos
Raymund Swertz, a narrow win against Polychronopoulos
Gwendal Maréchal, one of the winners in the Andernos team
Thorsten Frings was the better vs Sameh Sidhom
The standings in France after four rounds:
- Soissons Billard Club 6-1,360-15
- Saint Quentin 5-1,167-12
- Blois Doozy 5-1.321-14
- Andernos 5-1.321-10
- Retro Albertin 4-1.386-12
- Colmar Grand Est 2-1,338-7
- Intermarché 1-1.091-7
- Blois Doozy 2 1-0.877-9
- Courbevoie 1-0.824-7
- Douarnenez 0-1,065-10