MALLE - Michel Camp, one of the owners of the Salpho in Malle, would like to shout it from the snowy rooftops: ,,Come and see the show with Belgian star players in Europe’s most modern billiard center. ''
Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron, Peter Ceulemans and Eddy Leppens: they will perform on Wednesday evening in the BTS tournament. It is the repetition of the first tournament in Sint Niklaas: same four players have qualified for the semi finals.
Tonight (Tuesday) there is a flavour for the real lovers of the classic game types. Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Leppens, Patrick Niesen and Johan Claessen play the semifinals balk-line 47/2 in the BTS classics.
The Salpho in Malle is the stage to be.
The semi-finals in three cushion will be played at 19.30: Eddy Merckx meets Eddy Leppens, Frédéric Caudron faces Peter Ceulemans.
Eddy Merckx was the winner of the first BTS tournament this year: he shone with a new BTS record general average: 2x424. The world champion defeated Peter Ceulemans in the final 40-13 in 13 innings.
Peter Ceulemans came to the final by beating Frédéric Caudron with penalties after 40-40 in the regular match.
Caudron and Ceulemans had already qualified for the semi finals in the Salpho. Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens joined them last night in the eighth and the quarter finals.
Eddy Merckx snatched victory against Jef Philipoom in the quarterfinals 40-23 in 22 innings.
Eddy Leppens faced a tough fighting Roland Forthomme in a match with a thrilling final. Leppens started smoothly with runs of eight and ten in the fourth and eleventh inning, leading 31-11 in eleven. Forthomme then attacked with runs of 6-8-1-4-8 from the 11th to 15th inning, but he could not finish things off.
When Leppens closed the match 40-38, Forthomme got his chance in the equalizer. The Belgian champion missed from the spots.