ALBERT - The young French player Gwendal Maréchal showed his great talent on the last day of the regular French team competition with a 40-points match in 14 innings. With that performance, he moved to the same level as the top match between Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl, won by the Belgian 40-38 in 14 innings. La Baule and Saint Quentin are the two teams to advance for the semi-finals in Group A.
The epilogue of the regular season was played between Laxou and La Baule and between Albert and Saint Quentin. The reigning champion La Baule had already secured of qualification and lost 6-2 to Laxou. Saint Quentin grabbed the second place by a 6-2 win over Albert.
In Albert, Gwendal Maréchal showed his high class during the first round in the match against Cédric Melnytschenko. The young man from Lorient already started with 3 and 11 and again 11 in the sixth inning. That brought him to a 27-4 score in 6 innings. Melnytschenko came back slightly with 9 after the break (27-13 in 6), after which Maréchal finished 40-27 in the 14th inning and after a run of 9 by Melnytschenko in the equalizer. With great averages for the two young Frenchmen: 2.857 for the winner, 1.928 for the loser.
At the other table, Kevin Perrotin won the match vs Xavier Le Roy after a fascinating final 40-39. As a result, Saint Quentin led 4-0 at the break, but it was not enough to make it to the semi-finals, as Laxou led 3-1 against La Baule during the break. Jérémy Bury and Jef Philipoom played a draw in 28 innings, Eric Tromas won the game against Devogelaere by one point
In Albert, the second half of the game started at 4-0 for Saint Quentin, that needed 1 more point to qualify. Juan David Zapata took that precious win against Glenn Hofman 40-38 in a nice 16-inning match in which Zapata already led 29-10 in 10 innings. Hofman came back with 12 and 11, but was defeated at the finish line
Peter Ceulemans was the only winner for his team by beating David Martinez 40-36 in 23 innings after an early lead of 15-7.
The victory of Saint Quentin was noted with a new record: 1.695 against 1.565 for Albert, which has been relegated to the second division.
In Laxou, the clash between Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl was exciting and Jean-Paul de Bruijn and Pierre Soumagne also played an excellent game. Caudron attacked 6-0-7-5-4 and led 22-11 in 5. The Swede, with 2-5-3-0-0-10 returned to 31-32 in 11. Caudron finished in the 14th, Blomdahl scored three times from the break, but was two points short: 40-38 in 14.
Soumagne had a better start against De Bruijn (22-16 in 8 at the break), the Dutchman scored a 9, later 7 and 6, but was defeated by Soumagne 40-39 in 19 at the finish.
Laxou won the match 5-3 and 1.628 on average for the two teams. La Baule leads the ranking with 8 points ahead of Saint Quentin with 7, Laxou with 6 and Albert is last with 3 points.
The results in Group B:
Saint Quentin-Albert 6-2
Martinez-Ceulemans 36-40 (23)
Zapata-Hofman 40-38 (16)
Perrotin-Le Roy 40-39 (39)
Maréchal-Melnytschenko 40-27 (14).
Laxou-La Baule 2-6
Blomdahl-Caudron 38-40 (14)
Soumagne-De Bruijn 40-39 (19)
Tromas-Devogelaere 40-39 in 38
Philipoom-Bury 40-40 (28).