DOUARNENEZ - Two of three French teams have already qualified for the final rounds in the Coupe d'Europe for classical teams. The tournament moves to the decisive round today, Saturday, when the four teams for the cross-finals will be known. The defending champion Douarnenez Valdys and Billard Club Ronchin, both with two wins out of two matches, are already secured for those final rounds, which will be played on Sunday at Douarnenez's home arena.
The leaders in the two groups, Douarnenez and Ronchin, have gathered 4 match points and 5 matches won out of 6. BC Andernos, De Hazelaar, Foment Molins and Sterkrade have two match points.
Raymund Swertz and Grégory Le Deventec both remained unbeaten for Douarnenez. Swertz won his two matches in 47/2 in 3 innings (250 caroms, 83.33 on average), Le Déventec won his two matches to 120 points in one cushion in 9 and 23 innings. Only Marek Faus lost a match for the title holder. The Czech was defeated by Dutchman Gert-Jan Veldhuizen in 71/2 by 200-181 in 6 innings. The Dutchman finished with a nice run of 130.
Douarnenez won that match against De Hazelaar 4-2 and is the unbeaten leader in that Group A ahead of De Hazelaar, which plays today, Saturday, against Sterkrade for qualification. The winner of that match will advance to the cross-finals as number two. Sterkrade won Friday's match against Noorderkempen 4-2, including a win by Micha van Bochem in the 71/2 against Ronny Mathysen with 200-145 in 10 innings. Robby Sonck won for Noorderkempen, Nico van Hanegem lost in one cushion to Uwe Matuszak with 120-51 in 24.
The French teams in Group B, BC Andernos and BC Ronchin both won their second match 6-0. The Ronchin team, featuring Jean-Francois Florent, Bernard Villiers and Brahim Djoubri is secured of the qualification. Jean Francois Florent was the best man against Spaniards from Foment Molins: he beat Alvaro Gomez in 71/2 by 200-46 in 10 innings.
BC Andernos was too strong 6-0 against Merklinde's Germans. Nicolas Gérassimopoulos, Bernard Baudoin and Benoit Legros won over Martijn Egbers, Roland Gries and Christian Pöther. Legros was one of the standouts on the second day. The Frenchman won his match in 47/2 in two innings vs Pöther with a final run of 195.
The standings on top (match points, match points, percentage)
1 Douarnenez 4-10-98.33
2 Ronchin 4-10-87.70
3 Andernos 2-8-85.26
4 The Hazelaar 2-6-75.61.