DOUARNENEZ - The match in the French team league for Group A between Douarnenez Novatlas and Laxou ended in a draw: 4-4. The encounter was important, because both teams had lost their first matches to Andernos and Soissons and needed a win to move up to third place in the ranking.
Jef Philipoom (Laxou) played an excellent match against Vincent Lelievre of the home team in the first session. The Belgian won in 22 innings 40-18 with a high run of 9. That turned out to be the best match of the encounter and for Laxou the start for a later draw. At the stop, Philipoom already had a 20-3 lead in five innings with runs of 8 and 9.
Matthieu Franck took a 20-9 lead in 17 innings for the home team facing Antoine Mangin, then ran to 23-12 in 24 innings before Antoine Mangin produced the best run of the match with 13. Matthieu reacted very well later in the match with 4-4-3-5 and brought his team to 2-2: 40-34 in 33.
In the second session, leaders Grégory Le Deventec and Jean van Erp (Philipoom's teammate) faced each other. Kevin Vasseur played against Xavier Le Roy. Vasseur always led the match with a few points: 20-17 in 18, 29-24 in 30, 36-29 in 35 and when Xavier Le Roy came back to 38-38, Vasseur finished it off and led Douarnenez 4-2 after 3 matches.
In the decisive match, Le Deventec started better than Van Erp with 21-11 in 17. In the 27th inning, Grégory led 31-25. A 5 run enabled the Dutchman to come back to 35-37 in the 36th inning. In the 40th, Grégory missed a mattch ball and Jean van Erp finished with 2 in the 41st inning. The Breton player still had a perfect chance in the equlaiser to finish with a 5-3 win for his team, but he missed the point from the break.
Therefore, the match endded in 4-4 with 1,109 average for Laxou and 1,000 for Douarnenez.