PORTO - The eight finalists for the European Cup for three cushion teams are definitely known. FC Porto, the title holder, will face seven teams tomorrow, Saturday, who qualified from the 20 teams in the preliminary rounds. The Danes of Varde BK were number one in game points (23). Four teams finished with the maximum six match points in the groups of four teams. Mister 100 qualified last on Friday night after an exciting climax. ’’We are super happy, because we never expected this,'' commented Bart Ceulemans, who was one of the four winners in the Belgian team.
Mister 100 started the tournament against the strong Turks of FBN Tekstil Spor (0-8), but recovered magnificently with two victories by the maximum score. That made the Mister 100 team one of the top two runners-up in the groups. Saint Quentin, the team that finished second after Cues&Darts in Group A, is the other runner-up. Mister 100 has Peter and Kurt Ceulemans as front men, Saint Quentin plays with Johan Loncelle and the Duriez brothers, among others.
The group winners are Varde BK (Merckx, Nelin), FBN Tekstil (Tasdemir, Berkay and Omer Karakurt), Billard Club Andernosien (Zanetti, Forthomme), Cues&Darts (Legazpi, Soumagne), Billards Cafe (Glenn Hofman, Emilio Sciacca), all joined by FC Porto, the defending champion (Jaspers, Blomdahl).
Mister 100 did an impossible tour by winning the last two matches 8-0. Peter, Kurt and Bart Ceulemans and Jerry Hermans did so in the matches against BC International (with Martin Horn) and Pottendorfer, in which Jerry Hermans made the final 8-0 score in a game against Truong over 50 innings (40-35).
BK Varde made the best impression of all the teams with 11 wins in 12 games and one tie score by Daniel Kristiansen. Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Dion Nelin remained undefeated. Billard Club Andernosien and FBN Tekstil lost only one game out of 12: for Andernos, Gwendal Maréchal lost one game, for Tekstil, Gökhan Salman had to cancel because his father died at the age of 67. The farewell ceremony is this Saturday in Istanbul. The team will not call a replacement for Salman and continues playing with three men.
The Dutch team Cues&Darts started with an 8-0 win against Herstal (Legazpi wins in 16 innings), then won vs Centro Norton 7-1 (Legazpi draw against Andrade, wins Soumagne, Joey de Kok and Jack van Peer) and finally 5-3 vs Saint Quentin (Legazpi draw against Loncelle, wins Soumagne and De Kok).
Among the Italians of Biliards Cafe, Glenn Hofman remained unbeaten, but the team itself lost to Madrid Escuela 6-2. Those Spaniards still had a chance in the last match of the preliminary rounds to pass Biliards Cafe and qualify. Jeffrey Jorissen, Madrid's leading man: ’’We needed to win 8-0, but our fourth man lost 29-28 in 50 innings.'' The Madrid team played in that last match with father and son on the team: Valentino Andaloz Anton, the son, at three, Valentin Andaluz Blazquez, the father, at four. As a result, Biliards Cafe advanced to the top eight as group winners.
Matches in the final groups for Saturday:
9.30:
Group A: FC Porto-Mister 100, FBN Tekstil-Cues&Darts
11.45:
Group B: Varde BK, Saint Quentin, Billard Club Andernoisien, Biliards Café.
All live on Kozoom.