3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM – What happened to Frédéric Caudron at the European championships, a loss against Marco Zanetti after a world run of 28, was repeated more or less on the second day of the European Cup in Schiltigheim. The Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl ran an amazing 22 against Tayfun Tasdemir but he lost the match.
The spike of the world’s number one was not enough to beat the Turkish player, who showed his great fighting spirit as the captain of his team.
The highlight in two days of billiards in the Agipi arena Agipi marked the match that was decisive for the qualification. Bahcelievler, with four Turkish top players, had already seeded, Laxou needed a draw or a win to reach the best four.
Before the break, Laxou’s illusions were already disrupted. Bahcelievler led 4-0 after two matches by victories of Murat Naci Coklu over Pierre Soumagne (40-35 in 24) and Adnan Yüksel over Eric Kremer-Leclaire (40-25 in 27).
Two excellent performances by the Turks, that forced Laxou to a great performance in the second part. Torbjörn Blomdahl started not that well (trailing 8-2), but then suddenly showed a mighty explosion of class in the 7th inning. And with his run of 22 he bent the score to 24-8.
Four innings further, Tasdemir was back in the match (31-25), a while later he took the lead (35-34) and in the seventeenth inning he finished 40-37 in 17.
Martin Horn had - after a big backlog (22-8) against Lütfi Cenet - winning chances as well. The German even missed a match ball in the 21th inning and saw Cenet close out with three: 40-39.
Tomorrow, in the semifinals, Agipi plays against Andernos (9.00) and Bahcelievler against Coral Colón (15.00).
The rankings per group with team averages:
Group A:
Agipi 1, 1.540
2 Coral Colón, 1.470
3 De Ploeg, 1.171
Group B:
Bahcelievler 1, 1.760
Andernos 2, 1.316
Laxou 3, 1.315.
The best individual averages per team:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl, Laxou 2.484
2 Tayfun Tasdemir, Bahcelievler 2.051
3 Marco Zanetti, Agipi 1.951
4 Roland Forthomme, Andernos 1.860
5 Nikos Polychronopoulos, Coral Colón 1.703
6 Jean van Erp, The Team 1.681.