Carom
BLANKENBERGE - The Belgian titleholder Roland Forthomme has almost certainly advanced for the final rounds in the Belgian championship three cushion. He started with two victories and has one match to go for sharing the best sixteen players.
Steven Van Acker and Luc Salvo have to show up for their decisive match, concerning that Forthomme is the man who must pull the trigger for Salvo.
Steven van Acker has a less average than Salvo (1.209 vs 0.923), but with Ivan Stisschinsky (zero points) as opponent, the player from Eeklo, who was second behind Filippos Kasidokostas at the junior World championship in 2003 (in Eeklo) is slightly favorite.
Tonight, after the last round, the ranking of the sixteen seeded players will be made for the quarter-finals on Friday. Peter De Backer (2.000), Eddy Leppens (1.818) and Eddy Merckx (1.643), as it looks now, are the the four players on top of the rankings.
Roland Forthomme (1.568) still can pass Merckx and until now is ahead of Frédéric Caudron (1.481).
That position is important for the quarter-finals, where the number one faces the number last, the number two plays against number fifteen and so on.
Besides that battle for the final qualification in three cushion, there were some wonderful fights in the other disciplines. The highlight was Caudron's match in one cushion against Martin Spoormans in four innings (150-23) with a run of 96.
Patrick Niessen is still in the race in 47/2 thanks to a match in one inning against Philippe Deraes (300-1). Caudron seems to have the title in the 71/2 for grabs after the victory over Eddy Leppens 250-39 (5). In the 47/1, Caudron added another win: 200-4 against Martin Ravestyn in four innings.
Young man Andy de Bondt lost his chances in the free game by a loss against Johan Claessen in two innings (400-252). ,,The tables are actually too fast for me'', was his comment. ,,I am used to play the runs very quickly, but that's very hard on these tables.''
Maarten Janssen and Johan Claessen collected four points in the free game out of three parties. Patrick Niessen is the favorite with three points out of two.
Peter De Backer is the main competitor for Caudron in one cushion. De Backer leads the ranking with six points out of three with 7.62 average. Caudron (two games played, four points) is over 23 with his average. De Backer and Caudron will meet Sunday morning at 11.00 o'clock.
Also in the 47/ 1 and 71/2, Caudron has played impressive averages: 66.66 and 62.50.
Tonight's matches at 20.30:
Three cushion:
Roland Forthomme - Luc Salvo, Steven van Acker - Ivan Stitschinsky.
71/2: Johan Claessen - Peter Debaes.
47/1: Eddy Leppens - Philippe Deraes.