GANDIA - Frédéric Caudron crawled through the eye of the needle to win his match and eventually won with one carom against Jose Manuel Gomez Bravo. The Belgians teammates lifted the Gandia foursome to the maximum 8-0 victory against Alicante. The home team took the lead in Group A.
Sergio Jimenez with with CB Montmeló joined the leader in the next session by a 7-1 victory against Gran Match. Jimenez was the star player in the last preliminary round with three great matches in 12, 15 and 16 innings, finishing 2.791 average over three duels. The 28-year-old Spaniard was not in that crushing form in his first match, but in the closing innings he finished the match without any troubles against Rafael Garcia Garrido.
Juan Bouverin Bote and Ruben Estrada shared the points (40-40 in 32), Javier Yeste Pablo defeated Jose Maria Fresneda 40-27 and Jose Maria Sayeras completed the score for his team.
Frédéric Caudron had the better final sprint against Jose Manuel Gomez Bravo after 32-28 and 36-35 scores in the last phase. The Spaniard took a 37-36 lead in the last innings, but when Caudron closed the match, Bravo needed three more caroms from the equalizer. He scored twice, but missed his third point.
Eddy Leppens played not the match he wanted, but won 40-32 against Jorge Canto in 38 innings. ,,I had some troubles with the start and with the table, but that will be better after a these first matches'', the Belgian said.
Alfonso Legazpi won 40-35 against Luis Miguel Gonzalez and Armando Moreno, the number ten in the Spanish league, 40-22 in 38 innings against Jose Gomez Monuera.
The two winning teams will meet tomorrow (Saturday) at 10.00.