BRUGGE - On a weekday evening at the Bruges billiard centre, Roland Forthomme played his way back into the record books last Thursday evening. The Belgian was the star in a match ahead of the final weekend of a BTS tournament against Andy de Bondt. It turned into a historic match: Forthomme finished the 40 points in six innings, an average of 6.666, the second best ever. De Bondt came to 10 points in 5 innings (no equalizer). The record best match over 40 points is held by Dick Jaspers with 40 in 4 innings, when the Dutchman played a German league match against Austrian Andreas Efler on 18 January 2018. He won 40-0 in 4 innings (5, 11, 2, 22).
Roland Forthomme enters the books with five other players who made the 40 in 6 innings: Frédéric Caudron (twice), Dick Jaspers, Haeng Jik Kim, Semih Sayginer and Marco Zanetti. Forthomme is also in the record books as the player with the world record best run: 28. He shares that record with Raymond Ceulemans, Junichi Komori and Frédéric Caudron.
At the Royal Bruges billiards club, where the finals are played tonight (Friday), Forthomme started his world match with 6, continued with 12, then made 1, 5, 11 and went out with 5. His opponent Andy de Bondt made 5, 4, 1, 0 and 0 in five innings without equalizer. Roland Forthomme's comments afterwards: ,,It was one of those matches where I felt in a flow after a nice start and a few good runs. The table felt good, the atmosphere was good, my opponent kept following for a while, so I just kept going. I didn't even realise we had so few innings, but when I got towards the end, they stopped at the other billiard. My last one was made and only then I looked at the scoreboard. With a feeling of, what is that, 6 innings? So yeah, that makes you feel super good. I didn't even make lucky shots, just played solid and well-concentrated. And we all know how different it can be in the next game. I lost to Jef Philipoom by one point. A pity, because I liked to have been in the semi-finals. It's not that I was less focused. I obviously had a feeling of: my work is done for tonight. I showed I can still do it. But I would have liked to have won that second match.''
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The BTS tournament in Bruges advances to the semi-finals this evening (Friday 16 December). Peter Ceulemans lost to Steven van Acker on Wednesday evening in a superb match as well. Ceulemans started 28-11 in 7, went to 33-11, then Van Acker countered and after a run of 10 then won with 2, 4 and 1: 40-38 in 17. Steven van Acker qualified for the semi-finals, the same as Eddy Merckx with 40 in 17 against Bart Leys. Jef Philipoom won against Koen Saver 40-31 in 32 and eliminated Roland Forthomme in the late evening match 40-39 in 32 in the quarter-finals. Ronny Brants beat Henk Blauwblomme for a place in the semi-finals.
The semi-finals are tonight, Friday:
19.30:
Eddy Merckx-Jef Philipoom
Ronny Brants-Steven van Acker
These matches will be followed by the final, all matches live on:
https://tinyurl.com/2ejsk4ja
Two tournaments have previously been played for the BTS cycle. Roland Forthomme won in Geraardsbergen in a final against Jef Philipoom 50-47 in 35. Eddy Merckx won in Eeklo in the final against Jef Philipoom 50-29 in 14. After the tournament in Bruges, a fourth edition of the BTS cycle will follow in Herstalien.
Roland Forthomme is the provisional leader in the rankings after two tournaments ahead of Jef Philipoom, Eddy Merckx, Steven van Acker and Francis Forton.