At the House of Billiards in Weert, Netherlands
"8 international players showed up at the well known House of Billiards in Weert, The Netherlands for qualifier 12 for the IPT World Open.
Michael Schmidt had an easy first round, because his opponent player Anthony Judet from Romania didn't show up on time for his first match and his match was forfaited. Judet his bagage was lost on Friday as he flew in from Vienna, he waited till 13.00 pm on Saturday as he was told that his bagage was on it's way, finally his suitcase arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, but his cuecase was still missing. His match was posponed till 2 pm but he still could not make it and lost his first match arriving at 3 pm.
Tournament director Maurice Houben provided him with a cue from the same brand he played with, and he went on to win both his matches in the losersround 10-7 against topclass 3-cushion player Martin Spoormans from Belgium and 10-6 against Sten Jarledal from Sweden wich secured him a spot in the last 4.
Germans's Michael Schmidt went on to defeat former European Snooker Champion Stefan Mazrocis 10-7 and is one win away from Reno.
In the other half of the brackets England's Chris Melling bested his fellowcountrymen Kevin Uzzell 10-7 in their first round and went on to beat Sten Jarledal from Sweden with a convincing 10-4 score, he will be playing Michael Schmidt in the winners-round final on Saturday for a ticket to Reno.
After an first round loss against Swedens Sten Jarledal, Pre-qualifier winner Jesse Thehu from The Netherlands beat Englands Kevin Uzzel 10-7 in the losersround leaving him emptyhanded, and played Stefan Mazrocis in the next round it went hill hill but an early miss from Thehu after a dry break from Mazrocis ended his journey as Mazrocis cleared up for a 10-9 victory.
Mazrocis will play Anthony Judet on Saturday in their losers-round match."
- Maurice Houben, Tournament director
"In the first match of the second day it was Chris Melling from England beating Michael Schmidt from Germany with a 10-8 score and therefore secured his spot in the IPT World Open.
Trailing the whole match, Chris finally stepped up a gear and after being behind 8-5 he won the next 5 frames to seal his victory.
In the mean time on the other table both Judet and Mazrocis where in a tight battle too, Mazrocis leading 7-3 at one point could do nothing as Judet cruised for victory winning 10-8.
The last match of the day saw Judet from Romania facing Schmidt from Germany for the a spot in the IPT World Open main tournament.
Schmidt leading almost the whole match and lead 7-3 when he got a bad kick, Judet got back on track and soon it was 8-8.
A break and run from Judet put him on the hill, and with another break and run Judet won the match 10-8 with his borrowed cue!!
A happy Judet punched the air, and thanked the roomowner for borrowing him the cue as his was still lost while travelling to Weert.
With 2 happy winners the WO-12 Qualifier was a succes despite the low entry's.
House of Billiards Weert - The Netherlands wishes both qualifiers good luck in the IPT World Open 2006."
- Maurice Houben, Tournament director
