ANKARA - The signs for the Dutch world champion were not so bad. The European Nations team championships, contested in Ankara this Tuesday and Wednesday, didn’t get such a good start for Dick Jaspers either, who was beaten by Roland Forthomme. The Orange team did survive the preliminary round again, though, just like at the world stage in Viersen a few weeks ago, thanks to Jean Paul de Bruijn with two wins. In the finals, the Netherlands make another bid for an international championship and even have two teams in the finals. The European Nations championship, at the Turkish billiard centre in Ankara, had 24 teams with two players in the first shuffle at the kick-off. The knockouts start for eight group winners this Wednesday morning. The Dutch and the Greeks are with two teams, the other four teams are Turkey 2, Germany, Belgium and France.
The matches for the quarter-finals Wednesday morning are:
9.30 (West Europe 8.30):
Netherlands-Belgium
Turkey 2-Netherlands
Germany-Greece 2
France-Greece 1
Best players on the first qualifying day were Tayfun Tasdemir and Dick Jaspers with 40 in 13 (3,077), Tasdemir and Berkay Karakurt 40 in 16 (2,500), Dimitrios Seleventas 40 in 17 (2,352), Torbjörn Blomdahl and Brian Knudsen 40 in 18 (2,222) and Roland Forthomme 40 in 19 (2,105). The best in average over two games was Tayfun Tasdemir, 80 caroms, 29 innings, 2.758 average.
The Turkish team with Tayfun Tasdemir and Berkay Karakurt qualified first for the knock-outs with 8: the team achieved 8 individual match points and 1.927 average and a best run of 15. The Germans in the sessions with the first four qualifiers came second with 8 points and 1.523 among others after the comfortable win over Spain 2 with Carlos Anguita and Carlos Crespo.
The two Dutch teams both qualified with 3 match points as Dick Jaspers lost one game against Belgium 2 (Fortohomme) and Barry van Beers against Turk Kapisuz. Jean Paul de Bruijn for Netherlands 1 and Jean van Erp for Netherlands 2 were good for the maximum match points. Roland Forthomme, playing for Belgium 2, was unlucky with a weak second man, otherwise a sensation would have been in the air on the first day against Netherlands 1. The strong Belgian leading man played a sublime match against Dick Jaspers, winning 40-33 in 19 after 30-15 in eight innings. Forthomme also started against the Czech Republic with a win over Radek Novak (40-29 in 31), but Thomas Broux, the second man for Belgium, was beaten both matches against the Czech Republic (Martin Bohac) and the Netherlands (Jean Paul de Bruijn) with poor averages: 0.680 against the Czechs, 1.000 against the Orange team. And so the Netherlands, the world champion, was able to get by with the 4-0 victory over the Czech Republic.
Germany's defending champion had a walk-over against weak Norway with wins by Martin Horn against Meling (40-12 in 29) and Ronny Lindemann against Bjørnstad (40-13 in 32) and then went past the Spanish number 2 with remarkable ease. Best starting game of all teams was from Greece 2, which saw its young leading man Dimitrios Seleventas shine against Emilio Sciacca (40-10 in 17) and Kostas Papakonstantinou against Francesco Orlando (40-33 in 25), an overall average for the Greeks of 1,904 in that first round of play.
The second and final session, from which the next four teams came for the knock-outs started brightly for two routines against two young talents. Peter Ceulemans overpowered Amir Ibraimov with 11-0 in 6 and 16-1 in 8, finally winning 40-24 in 26 in 23 innings. Eddy Merckx was inexorable to Tom Löwe with 40-12 in 26. Torbjörn Blomdahl whirled over Dimitrios Seleventas by 11-0 in 7 and 11-3 in 10 and at the finish 40-29 in 28. The other match, however, played out in Greece's favor with Papakonstantinou as the generous winner over David Pennör: 40-15 in 29.
The first Greek team with Polychronopoulos and Kokkoris, former champions at this European Championship, dominated the young French B team after making a false start against Denmark 1-1. Maxime Panaia and Adrie Tachoire lost their way against the experienced pair: Polychronopoulos won against Panaia 40-24 in 27, Kokkoris from Kokkoris 40-21 in 34. France A set the tone with Mikaël Devogelaere and eventually saw Jérémy Bury overpower Manuel Rui Costa with some difficulty as well.
The Turks Berkay Karakurt and Tayfun Tasdemir among the big contenders in Ankara
The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Peter Ceulemans
Greek young player Dimitrios Seleventas, best starter and with his team in the quarters
Two big German players: Martin Horn is moving up, Amir Ibraimov is out
Jean van Erp, with Dutch second team in the finals against Turkey
The eight seeded countries and scores:
1. Turkey 2 4-8-1,927-15
2. Germany 4-8-1,523-11
3. Belgium 4-8-1,523-10
4. France 4-6-1,500-14
5. Netherlands 1 3-6-1,888-10
6. Greece 2 3-6-1,505-9
7. Greece 1 3-6-1,256-8
8. Netherlands 2 3-6-1,083-
Further in the top 16 and not qualified:
9 Sweden 3-6-1,285-9
10 Turkey 1 3-6-1,068-7
11 Spain 2-4-1,397-10
12 Spain 2 2-4-1,217-9
13 Belgium 2 2-4-1,186-8
14 France 2 2-5-1,106-9
15 Portugal 2-4-1,097-6
16 Germany 2-4-0,943-13