LOMMEL - The Kimchi Superprestige, with the sixteen best Belgian three cushion players, is halfway in the run-up to the final rounds. The tournament continues today with among others Eddy Merckx as the main favourite. Roland Forthomme and Peter Ceulemans joined the two players (Jef Philipoom and Steven van Acker) for the quarterfinals at the Lommel tournament. Roland Forthomme remained unbeaten and beat his team mate Peter Ceulemans 40-30 in 25. Davy van Havere and Ronny Brants finished third and fourth in the day ranking.
The two key players in the Dutch Zundert team, cheered by fans from that region, were solid winners with 1.578 and 1.506 average. Peter Ceulemans played the best match (40 in 19) and signed for the highest run (11). Roland Forthomme won his matches in 31, 25 and 20 innings.
Davy van Havere managed to follow the two major players until halfway, but went down and out by some high runs at the end. Roland Forthomme finished with 8 at 33-32 in the 31st inning. Peter Ceulemans finished 8 and 4 after being down 19-9 in the first part of the match. He scored 31 points in his last eight.
Ronny Brants had a poor start against Ceulemans (40-20 in 29, 0.689 for the loser). The usually feared cupfighter recovered with 1.550 and 1.500 but opposed two players (Forthomme and Van Havere) who beat him with 2.000 average.
The match for the group wins started with a quick lead for Ceulemans after a run of eleven in the fourth (14-5). Forthomme was back in business after a minor period of Ceulemans (21-15 in 9). The, the match had an easy finish for Forthomme, who kept a 10 points margin until the end.
The final ranking in Group B:
1 Roland Forthomme 6-1.578-10
2 Peter Ceulemans 4-1.506-11
3 Davy van Havere 2-1.357-8
4 Ronny Brants 0-1.173-8.
Roland Forthomme bested Peter Ceulemans in the match for the group win
Tonight, Wednesday (starting 18.00) the next group comes to the arena with Eddy Merckx, Francis Forton, Kurt Ceulemans and Andy de Bondt.
Also today, starting at 10.00, the juniors show up for their tournament. The eight participants are:
Group A: Dylan Parent, Kenny Vander Mierde, Nino Coeckelbergs and Tim van Hoek.
Group B: Stef van Hees, Gérome Dieu, Michael Parent and Cédric de Meulmeester.
The junior finals are on Friday.