BERLICUM - The second part of the European three cushion championships in Berlicum goes to a final table with sixteen winners from sixteen groups of pre-rounds today, Wednesday, at the end of the evening. Ronny Lindemann and Turgay Orak, Jérôme Barbeillon and Thomas Andersen, Jacob Sörensen and Jeffrey Jorissen, David Pennör and Jean Paul de Bruijn, among others, will close the last sessions in the 18.00 and 20.00 rounds, after which the sixteen winners are joining the schedule with the sixteen seeded players.
The organiser Harry Mathijssen (BEN team) and sports director Paul Brekelmans saw 24 games pass on the first Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by 24 other games in the last part of the preliminaries. After these two days, the Benelux Theatre will get to see the European elite, including Dick Jaspers, world and European champion, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Semih Sayginer, Dani Sánchez, Tayfun Tasdemir and the other main champions.
Jean van Erp and Turgay Orak, in matches against Emilio Sciacca and Brian Hansen, were the best winners on the first day with 40-12 and 40-19 in 21 innings, Maxime Panaia beat Sciacca in 23 innings and is duelling with Jean van Erp for group win later today.
The matches that were decided in the end brought the first tension in the two arenas of the theatre. Raymund Swertz won 40-39 from Omer Karakurt, who missed the equaliser in a 7-run from the spots. Dave Christiani, from the home country as well, beat Nalle Olsson 40-39. Radovan Hajek and Vangelis Moulos drew in 34 innings, Roland Uijtdewillegen, the Dutch last-minute substitute, had the best final sprint against Yavuz Güngördü, 40-37.
For Raimond Burgman, David Pennör, Jérôme Barbeillon and Cengiz Karaka, the European Championship has yet to start, as they will be at the tables for the first time today, Wednesday at 10.00 against Dionisis Tsokantas, Frédéric Mottet, Simon Blondeel and Nalle Olsson. And also Ronny Lindemann, Arnim Kahofer, Jose Miguel Soares and Jacop Sörensen will only start today and play two group matches for qualification.
The most remarkable start was made by the Dutch: seven of nine players in total (Jaspers and Burgman are still coming up) came into the arena, all seven won their matches: Raymund Swertz, Dave Christiani, Jeffrey Jorissen, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Jean van Erp and Roland Uijtdewillegen. The home country has made a perfect start at the European Championship.
Vangelis Moulos shone with a run of 14 in the match he shared with Radovan Hajek. Roland Uijtdewillegen and Dave Christiani made runs of 11 and 10.
Today, Wednesday, the sessions are at 10.00, 12.00, 14.00, 16.00, 18.00 and 20.00.
Thursday, the knock-outs start with 32 players as of 12.30.
All matches can be seen live on kozoom.com
Focus behind the Kozoom cameras at the Europeans in Berlicum
Four score boards for four tables in two arenas
Roland Uijtdewillegen, last-minute substitute, started with a win
Portuguese player Rui Costa, first winner in the starting group