Marco Zanetti with a sublime 20 in France

ANDERNOS - In the French team competition, one match in Group A and one in Group B were played this Thursday for the fourth day of play. The day’s highlight was the sublime run of 20 made by Marco Zanetti for the Andernos team. The team won 8-0 over Douarnenez and is the number two in the group. Colmar's opponents had to miss two players due to flight problems for Spanish players.

The Madrid-Bordeaux flight, scheduled for 9.50am, was regularly delayed by two hours with the last postponement being a 5pm departure. Sergio Jimenez and Ruben Legazpi were expected to arrive in Andernos at 7pm at the earliest, but that was still subject to change. The match was eventually played without the two Spaniards. Jean Haby and Jérôme Riotto had to play in those positions. They faced Marco Zanetti and Roland Forthomme with a regular 0-4 deficit.

In the first game, Jérôme Riotto offered a long game to Roland Forthomme. He even had a chance to beat the Belgian with a score 36-39 for Forthomme. The Frenchman was only scored twice (38-39), then the Belgian finished the match at 38-40, what gave a 6-0 intermediate score.

 The match between Marco Zanetti and Jean Haby was played without much at stake. In the 10th inning, when the score was 15-7 in the Italian's favor, Zanetti whirled to the best run of this French championship: a formidable 20. The match ended at 40-10 in 15 innings.

Andernos thus won 8-0, played only two of the four games initially scheduled, and climbed to provisional 2nd place in his group. 

In Group A, Eddy Merckx gave his Soissons team a flying start with a 36-9 score in 9 innings against Francis Forton. Three nil and a run of four in the 13th inning realized the best individual win for the reigning Soissons champion with a 40-9 score in 13 innings. At the other table, Vincent Lelièvre caused a surprise by beating Mikael Devogelaere after leading 36-28 in the 27th inning and then containing Devogelaere's come-back to finish with a minimal margin 40-39 in 42 innings. The score was therefore 2-2 with the Jérémy Bury-Steven Van Acker and Pierre Soumagne-Grégory Le Deventec matches still to be played.

Douarnenez Prevalrisk eventually grabbed the first season point against Soissons the title favorite. Pierre Soumagne beat Grégory Le Deventec 40-33 in 43 and Steven Van Acker managed to beat France's No 1 Jérémy Bury 40-38 in 26.

For Soissons, not much changes. For Douarnenez, this draw against the reigning champion is almost a victory and holds out hope of staying in Division 1.

Soissons continues to lead Group A with 7 points ahead of Saint-Quentin and Intermarché with 3 points and Douarnenez with 1 point.

This Friday, Saint-Quentin host the Intermarché team in this group in a match that will be crucial to reach the French final.

Marco Zanetti scored the best run in France: 20

Eddy Merckx, great start of his match