Top matches Jaspers and Loncelle in France

On the fourth day of the French three cushion league, two matches remained on Friday: Saint-Quentin-Intermarché (Group A) and Blois Doozy-Albert (Group B). For Saint Quentin, winning 6-2, Dick Jaspers (40 in 12) and Johan Loncelle (40 in 14) showed up in standout matches. Sidhom, Hofman and Melnytschenko were successful for Blois. In Group A, Saint-Quentin played Intermarché in an important match for qualification for the Final Four. With Soissons leading in this group, 2nd place would be up for grabs between these two teams and Saint-Quentin had already drawn against Gironde. It was also a chance for Dick Jaspers to meet his old Andernos teammates, as he was part of the Andernos squad last season.

The tone was immediately set: Johan Loncelle took on Frédéric Mottet and led 30-0! The Saint-Quentin number 2 needed 14 innings to beat his Intermarché opponent 40-9! At the other table, Kevin Perrotin and Francis Connesson took on each other, but in the end it was the local player who led 40-37 in 39 games. At halftime, Saint-Quentin led 4-0!

In the 2nd session, Dick Jaspers and Nikos Polychronopoulos made the show! Trailing 0-6 after 2 innings at the start of the match, the world number 1 Jaspers closed the gap with 40 points in the next 10 innings to give Saint-Quentin the final victory with a score 40-25 after 12 innings (best match of day 4), including two runs of 10. As a result, the match between Nathan Duriez and Marc Boingnères lost some importance, but the Girondin player nevertheless saved the day with a score 40-34 in 37.

Saint-Quentin 6 match points (1,509)

Intermarché 2 match points (1,088)

In the standings after 4 out of 6 rounds, Soissons leads with 7 points, Saint-Quentin follows with 5 points, Intermarché has 3 points and Douarnenez Prevalrisk 1 point.

In Group B, Blois Doozy put in an excellent performance against leader Albert. The home team won 6-2. Sameh Sidhom beat Jef Philipooom 40-35 in 28 innings, Glenn Hofman won vs Peter Ceulemans 40-29 in 22 innings and Adrien Tachoire beat Cédric Melnytschenko 40-35 in 24 innings. 

In the 1st session, Thierry Roxo (Albert) beat Maxime Panaia 40-37 in 46. Blois Doozy thus beat Albert 6-2 and the two teams shared the lead of the group with 5 points (18 individual points for Albert and 17 for Blois). Andernos is now 3rd with 4 points in this group and Colmar has 2 points. 

Blois Doozy: 6 match points (1,308)

Albert: 2 match points (1,158)

Johan Loncelle led 30-0 in his match with Mottet and won 40-9 in 14 innings