BRANDENBURG - The European billiard championships in all disciplines entered the final weekend on the early Saturday morning. Today and tomorrow, the last four disciplines will be played. The field of final players in three cushion for clubteams, artistic billiards, balk-line 71/2 and 5 pins for junior comes to the arena for the last four golden medals. The balk-line championship goes to its showdown today, Saturday. Raymund Swertz, the title defender, has already been eliminated. The Dutch crack in these disciplines played a draw in his last match against Xavier Grétillat from Switzerland and missed the knockout stage by average. That was a real disappointment for Swertz, who also lost the final in 47/2 in a match against Eddy Leppens (250-250 in 1 inning, Leppens winner in the shootout).
Among the contenders, who were knocked down, were also Patrick Niessen and Marek Faus. The Belgian played a draw in his last match against French player Bernard Villiers, but that was not enough to qualify.
The group winners who meet each other on Saturday morning were Arnim Kahofer, Jean-Francois Florent, Michel van Silfhout, Dave Christiani, Raul Cuenca, Xavier Grétillat, Esteve Mata and Bernard Villiers.
The games:
Kahofer (Aus)-Florent (Fr)
Van Silfhout (Nl)-Christiani (Nl)
Cuenca (Sp)-Gretillat (Sw)
Mata (Sp)-Villiers (Fr)
In the artistic billiards, the group stage is finished on Friday evenings. The eight winners are linked to the eight players who were automatically seeded. The young Dutchman Jop de Jong was one of the new appearances at the tables. He remained undefeated in his group of four.
The second round is played in two rounds on four tables (9.00 and 11.30). The quarter finals are at 15.00, the semi-finals at 20.30. On Sunday is the final at 13.30.
The games:
9.00:
Gümüs (Tr)-Clement (Fr)
Ahrens (Ger)-Sanchez (Sp)
Reverchon (Fr)-Daelman (Be)
Fonellosa (Sp)-Tran (Fr)
11.30:
Bax (Be)-Oliver (Sp)
Cin (Tur)-Jonen (Nl)
Vervliet (Be)-De Jong (Nl)
Hammen (Fr)-Tac (Tur)
In the three cushion championship on the small tables for club teams, a number of big names will show up, like Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron, Roland Forthomme, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Jean Paul de Bruijn. The Turks Birol Uymaz and Ahmet Bayatli are the title holders.
Eddy Merckx, who plays with Jordy de Kruyf, started the tournament on Friday with a run of 18, his teammate later scored fifteen. Merckx played the 25 caramboles in three innings. The Belgian is not unknown on the small table. ,,We are playing a competition in Antwerp, also with Frédéric Caudron. The competition is with handicap. For example, I have to play 100 caroms against my opponent 24.''
The two best teams from the eight groups qualify for the eighth finals with sixteen teams. The first knockout phase starts at 15.00.
Finally, the juniors in 5 pins play their tournament on Saturday.
Turkish title holder Serdar Gümüs in action on the first day of artistics