SAINT QUENTIN/ALBERT - The French team of Albert, with Peter Ceulemans as its leading player, won in the third round the match against Laxou. In its home match for the league in Group A, the team took revenge for the two defeats in the first rounds. La Baule, the reigning champion, played a draw against Saint Quentin despite victories of Tayfun Tasdemir and Jérémy Bury over Spaniards Martinez and Zapata. Peter Ceulemans dominated the match against Martin Horn and won 40-32 in 28 innings.
The Belgian had a comfortable lead 20-8 in six innings after the start and kept that margin until the end of the match. The match between Glenn Hofman (Albert) and Jef Philipoom ended in a minimal victory of the Belgian, who shone with runs of 10 and 8: 40-39 in 29 innings. The French clash between Cédric Melnytschenko (Albert) and Pierre Soumagne (Laxou) was the best match in this round. Melnytschenko led halfway the match 28-14 in 16, Soumagne came back to 39-37, but 'Melny' won 40-37 in 26 innings. That gave Albert a 4-0 lead half in the game.
In the match between La Baule and Saint Quentin, the emphasis was on the two La Baule leaders. Frédéric Caudron did not play, Tayfun Tasdemir and Jérémy Bury showed up on the positions one and two against Spaniards David Martinez and Juan David Zapata.
The Turkish star player Tasdemir and French number one Bury forced the draw for La Baule after the two other players, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Mikael Devogelaere, lost their matches to Kévin Perrotin and Alexis Rouaud. The Spaniards could not shine this time. Tasdemir took a quick lead against Martinez and won 40-30 in 29. Jérémy Bury had a poor start against Zapata (12-6 down in 14), but recovered and won the match including a run of 13: 40-25 in 29. Jean Paul de Bruijn had a bad start against Perrotin (30-12 behind) and could not make up for that in the second part. The Frenchman won 40-37 in 32. Rouaud surprised with a win over Devogelaere, 40-35 in 41.
La Baule played 1.160 average, Saint Quentin 1.030.
Jérémy Bury, victorious over Zapata and a draw with La Baule