The first leader in Group B of the French team competition is the team of Intermarché (Andernos). The frontrunner won 6-2 over Douarnenez to secure its first two match points. The other two teams in this Group B, the reigning champions Saint Quentin and Gravelines played a draw 4-4, a nice result for the northerners.
In Brittany, Douarnenez faced the Girondins, who had to play without their top player Dick Jaspers. In the first match, Grégory Le Deventec was quick to beat Marc Boingneres 40-31 in 32. On the other table, Francis Connesson beat his young compatriot Adrien Tachoire 40-29 in 36, so the score was 2-2 at half-time.
In the 2nd half, Steven Van Acker got off to an excellent start against Nikos Polychronopoulos with 19-5 in 10 innings. At the same time, Francis Forton was leading 16-11 against Frédéric Mottet in 13, so Douarnenez had hopes of success. In the 18th innings, Van Acker was still leading 26-17 against the Greek, while the Belgian was on 26-26 after 23. In the last 12 innings of his match, Steven Van Acker lost his grip by scoring only 5 points and Nikos Polychronopoulos won 40-30 in 30. Mottet scored 18 points in the last 10 of his match against Francis Forton to give his teammates a 40-34 victory in 36.
Douarnenez Prevalrisk/Andernos Intermarché 2-6 with 1,127 for the visitors and 1,000 for the home team.
At Saint-Quentin, Frédéric Roelants and Matthieu Franck battled each other until the break before Roelants broke through in the second half to win 40-28 in 39. Frédéric Beghin and Nathan Duriez were tied at 22-22 in 17. The end had an exciting final run with 38-33 for Duriez. A run of 5 by Beghin gave him a match ball. After missing the first, he did not miss the second and eventually won 40-38 in 29.
Gravelines thus led 4-0 at half-time, much to the surprise of the host club's supporters.
Martin Spoormans then held Johan Loncelle in control for 11 innings (12-12) before the younger of the two went on the attack. In 26 innings, Loncelle beat his opponent 40-30. In the head-to-head clash, Robinson Morales took the lead from the 2nd inning of his match against Philippe Vandendriessche. It took until the 36th before the Spanish Colombian reached the finish line, putting his opponent at 36 points behind. The two foreign players of the reigning champion limited the damage but lost a point.
St Quentin/Gravelines 4-4 with 1.123 for the hosts and 1.030 for the visitors.
Next match on 24 November: Intermarché/St Quentin and Gravelines/Douarnenez Prévalrisk.
