3-Cushion
PORTO - The Dutch team of SIS Schoonmaak has finished the prerounds at the Coupe d'Europe three cushion with the maximum ten match points. The team, with Jean van Erp as the player with four victories, is one of the six for the final round, to be played this weekend in Porto. The other group winners are Billard Club Baulois from France with the best average (1.692), BC Grøndal and BK Varde from Denmark, Club Billard Casino de Cartagena from Spain and Morangis Cyllene from France as the best runner-up. Two teams were already automatically seeded: the title holder from Turkey, FBN Tekstil BSK and FC Porto as the organizing team.
Jean van Erp played a leading role in the team that remained unbeaten in the only group with five teams. The other four groups were played with four teams for the places in the final round that will start tomorrow, Saturday. The best performance in 34 matches came from Danish dynamite Dion Nelin, who played a match over 40 caroms in 9 innings. Jean Paul de Bruijn signed for the best run with 14. Dion Nelin had the best average over three matches: 2.033 followed by Frédéric Caudron with 1.862, Nikos Polychronopoulos with 1.860, Eddy Leppens with 1.738, Eddy Merckx with 1.712 and Jérémy Bury with 1.700.
Other known players with the average: Birol Uymaz 1.643, Jean Paul de Bruijn 1.630, Carlos Anguita 1.538 Frans van Kuyk 1.481, Jean van Erp 1,379, Glenn Hofman 1.309, Raymond Burgman 1.295, David Martinez 1.285, Javier Palazón 1.241, Jeffrey Jorissen 1.140
The final groups:
FBN Tekstil BSK, SIS Schoonmaak, BC Grondal, Morangis
FC Porto, BK Varde, Cartagena, La Baule
The group summry at the end of the preliminaries:
Group A:
Jean van Erp is the winning player in the four matches for SIS Schoonmaak, that sovereignly is on top of five teams with the full ten match points. Glenn Hofman stars in a match in which he comes back from a big gap against Ronny Lindemann with a run of 13 in the final phase to still win the game. Just like in the Dutch league, Jeffrey Jorissen is an almost certain winner in the team despite a loss in the last game against Bayrmoglu. Raimond Burgman shows his enormous routine again at crucial moments and contributes to success. The Dutch face in the penultimate game the number two ASD and win 6-2. Only Nikos Polychronopoulos beats Hofman 40-24 in 21. Jean van Erp is the better of the last World Cup winner Javier Palazón with a final serie of 7-2-2 to 40-29 in 31. ASD Billiards, with Polychronopoulos and Javier Palazon, starts the preliminaries with a win over Palma 6-2 and a draw against Mecidiyeköy Kulubü. Jean van Erp sketches the team spirit after the third day: ''We made a very good start, now let's see if we can go for the podium in the final rounds, but we have lots of confidence.''
The final ranking in Group A:
1 SIS Cleaning 10-1.328-13
2 ASD Billiards Cafe 5-1.161-9
3 Mecidiyeköy Spor Kulubü 5-1.075
4 Asociacion Billar Palma 3-1.057-115 BC Witten 0-0.895-8
Glenn Hofman
Group B:
The Danish champion Varde BK, with Eddy Leppens as the leading player and Thomas Andersen as second man, remains unbeaten in the preliminaries. The match against Morangis Cyllene decides on the top position and is won by the Danes, 5-3. The crucial match between Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens is won by Varde player Leppens: 40-33 in 21. Birol Uymaz beats Thomas Andersen 40-26 in 19, but Brian Hansen with a win and Allan Schröder with a draw bring the full win to Varde. Vienna WBA records one win over BC Deurne. The Belgians lose their three matches. Jef Philipoom, who starts with two poor losses, still wins his last match against Leppens 40-33 in 24. Leppens ends with 1.388 on average, Merckx with 1.712.
The final ranking in Group B:
1 Varde BK 6-1.338-11
2 Morangis Cyllene 4-1.278-9
3 WBA Wiener Billard 2-0.810-9
4 BC Deurne 0-0.803-8
Thomas Andersen
Group C:
The French champion team La Baule, one of the top favorites with Caudron and Bury, survives the qualification without any trouble. Frédéric Caudron has a flawless start with matches in 17 and 15 innings, but is without any chance in the last performance against Andreas Horvat: 40-28 in 26. His teammates are doing well with three wins. The most striking player is Mikael Devogelaere, who wins in an excellent match against Ramacher: (30-5 in 13 and 40-6 in 16). Jérémy Bury and Jean Paul de Bruijn both take victory in 25 innings at the other tables. Sporting Clube de Portugal, BC Elite Wien and De Goeie Queue are not real competitors.
The final ranking in Group C:
1 Sporting Club Baulois 6-1.695-14
2 Sporting Clube de Portugal 4-1.149-10
3 BC Elite Wien 2-0.837-7
4 De Goeie Queue 0-0.743-13
Mikael Devogelaere
Group D:
The crucial match is the duel between Dion Nelin and David Martinez, two very attractive and high-level players. The Danish leader in BK Gröndal's foursome shows his excellent form on the way to the final rounds. He wins the match 40-32 in 15 innings, his second major appearance after the top match in the first round with 40 points in 9 innings. The favorite for a podium plce, without Tonny Carlsen, who stayed home to recover and relax after his brain surgery, ends undefeated with three wins? Jacob Haack Sörensen and Michael Lohse win their three matches, Brian Knudsen only loses to Antonio Montes, 40-16 in 25. The Danes win their three matches 8-0, 7-1 and 7-1. Nelin finishes 2,033 on average, David Martinez from Sport Lisboa Benfica loses his three matches with 1.285 overall, Antonio Montes beats Brian Knudsen.
The ranking in Group D:
1 BK Gröndal 6-1.394-13
2 BC Poruba 4-0.909-8
3 Sport Lisboa Benfica 2-0.970-8
4 BC Zürich 0-0.733-8
Dion Nelin
Group E:
The Spanish team Club Billar Casino de Cartagena wins the neck-to-neck race with BC Stuttgart, because they win one match more than the Germans. Carlos Anguita remains unbeaten with wins in 21, 28 and 29 innings. In the deciding match, Anguita bests Ramazan Durdu, Thorsten Frings defeats Spanish coach Jose Antonio Carrasco. Sporting Club 2000 from Italy surprises Cartagena in the last match of the group with a 4-4 score.
The ranking in Group E:
1 Club Billar de Cartagena 7-0.941-11
2 BC Stuttgart 4-0.871-8
3 BK Evita Kladno 2-0.702-11
4 Sporting Club 2000 1-0.698-8
Carlos Anguita