This is a long one. It was an amazing day. Seeder players got eliminated, players had to equalize for their tournament life. I never imagined how exciting it would be to be there in person and watch the matches in the context of the whole event rather tha a relatively sterile video of a match, wrenched out of context.
Afterwards I told my buddy Rich that after that day, nfl football is boring. Hyperbole for sur, but not by as much as I would have thought before this experience. Anyway, here it is:
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Well it is a big session, the top 4 players meet the players who won in the first session.* We have the Caudron/Barbeillon match on the left, Blomdahl/Rodriguez in front of us, Jaspers/Kahofer to the right, and Marckx/JG Kim further down on the right.* The match's start is delayed due to technical internet problems.* Mr. 100, Raymond Ceulmanns is here for the first time.* They play various things on the big screen before matches, and it was cool seeing Mr. Ceulmanns watching the Billiard clip from Donald in Mathemagicland.
Still waiting - 22 minutes late, but they are allowing the players to warm up, anticipating the problem will be solved in the next 10 minutes.*
We are at the break.* Caudron trails 23-14, Not sure of other matches because they haven't fixed the problem and so, there is no big scoreboard showing all 4 matches.* OK, Jaspers leading Kahofer, 23-9.* Kim leading Merckx, 23-20.* And Rodriguez leading Blomdahl, 20-17.* The top seeds better get their act together.* Kozoom seem to have gotten their act together, as we now have the big scoreboard with all matches up to date.
Merck has woken up and had a nice run of 11.* Kahofer is on a nice run, chasing Jaspers And tying it up at 24 in 16 innings.* Caudron kept chipping away and has caught his French opponent at 28 in the 19th.* Jasper's struck back and has a 3 pt. lead.* And now 7.* Barbeillon is on a run which turned out to be 6 to take a 35-28 lead.* Caudron and Blomdahl both trail, but they both have the yellow ball so if their opponent goes out they get the equalizing chance.
Merckx is first to hit 40 and Kim needs 12 to equalize.* Tough ask.* Couldn't do it.* 40-32 in 20.
If Barbeillon hits 40 this place will explode.* And it just happened.* Caudron needs 12 to equalize.* Nope.* 40-31 in 25, and Caudron is out.* First major upset.* And the crowd goes crazy!!!
Jaspers closed out Kahofer, 40-26 in 20.* Once Kahofer tied Jaspers, Dick threw a blanket ever him, outscoring him 16-2 over the last 4 innings.
Now we are down to the Blomdahl match, with TB trailing 36-29 but on a little run, that brings it to 36-36 at the end of the 26th.* And remember, he has the yellow.* Rodriguez misses by a hair, and TB gets back to work.* I won't be surprised if he runs out.* And he does.
In the next session we have:
Zanetti v HK Kim on table 1
Polychronopoulous v Palazon on table 2
Sidhom v Ma on table 3
Sanchez v Soumagne on table 4
As an aside I just ran into Americans for the first time here, a couple from SF.
Dani will be facing the hometown crowd that will be pulling for his French opponent.* He needs to get out quick.
Zanetti and Sidhom off to fast starts running 6 and 7, respectively off the break.* Soumange ran 3 off the break but Dani responded with 13, tying Jaspers for high run, I think - maybe he was listening to me.
Ma responded to Sidhom's 7 with a starting run of 4.* And now Ma takes the lead with a nice run of 7.
The early level of play this session is much higher than the first.* We have had a 13, 7, 7, and a 6 in the first 3 innings.* We will see if that holds up.
Dani's average was 7.5 after his first 2 innings so you would figure it will go down in the next inning.* Nope, he has 10, giving him 25 in 3 innings.* If he keeps it up, we could enter possible record territory.* Not a bad start:* 13, 2, 10.
After a bit of a slow start Poly has taken control of his match 20-8 in 12.*
You have to give Soumagne credit.* He gets blitzed and comes out of the break trailing 25-7 and runs 3.* His first 4 innings have been 3,2,2,3 and he is getting killed.
Ma has the lead over Sidhom at the break, 22-15.* Samih will need a comeback, but it is not as extreme as yesterday.
Zanetti is at the break, leading Kim, 22-9.
There will be no records in the Sanchez match, as they both have come out of the break a little cold.* Dani leads 30-10 after 8.* Unless I am mistaken I think he has had 3 double digit runs so far.* And he ended his first game 11 and out, so when he started with a 13, that made it 24 tournament points in a row without a miss.
Interesting little by play in this match.* Soumagne had a close one that the ref called a miss, but Sanchez insisted it made and in the end they counted it.* I'm not sure I like the idea of the players over-ruling the ref but either way it was a high level of sportsmanship on Dani's part.
Zanetti has come out of the break on fire with a run of 12.* 35-18 in the 12th.
Ma is now crushing Sidhom 36-16 after 14. Now Samih will need another big comeback after all.* I'm pulling for him.
Zanetti went out and now Kim needs to tie the tournament run record of 28 to equalize.* Nope.
And now I wonder if Dani's act of sportsmanship might cost him, as the Frenchman has closed to 35-29 after a run of 7.* Then Dani missed and someone in the crowd said something that drew his attention.* Another exchange of blanks and Dani is looking frustrated.
Ma 1 point away, but Sidhom gets another chance.
Poly closes out Palazon 40-28 in 22.
Ma is a little stuck on 39, but Sidhom not taking advantage.* And Ma finally closes him out 40-23 in 21.
Dani leads 38-31, after 18 but is visibly frustrated.* Soumagne makes 1 and then Dani gets kissed out (kissedout, where have I heard that before?)* 3 more for Soumagne, but Dani has the yellow ball so it can be over any minute, but Dani misses a jacked up shot long.* Damn this is exciting!** Tied at 38 and still shooting.* 39.* One more and Dani has to try to equalize.* And it is so.* Soumagne goes out 40-38 and Dani needs 2 to draw!* Fricking unbelievable.* Made the break, left a cookie, made it, and it is a draw.* I think Dani will go into the KO stage on average.
Yup, just verified it, Dani's average is much higher.* What a glorious performance for the Frenchman, and what a cruel disappointment, as well, not to move on.* The thrill of (a near, and certainly a moral) victory and the agony of defeat, all in the same match. He was a late addition to replace a qualifier who had to scratch.
I'm going to focus on Sayginer v DKK this round on table 1.* The guy with the best game so far against the heartbreakingly close to winning finalist from last year.* Cho v Novak is the adjacent table.* The noise will be down at the other end on table 4 where Eddy Leppens will be playing Jeremy Bury, the Frenchman who is coming off his first 2 big tournament wins at the Carom Cafe event and a World Cup.* After the performances of the other 2 Frenchmen, he has a lot to live up to.
Next session, more hot starts.* Breaking players made 3, 5,* 6, and 9.* Sameh had the 6, and Bury had the 9.
These are closer matches.* Bury leads Leppens at the break 20-10, but the other matches are a couple of points apart, approaching the break.* Morales just got 20 and leads Tran 20-16, and now Sameh leads at his break, 20-17.* Novak runs 8 to get to the break, and leads Cho 25-18 in 16.
Bury came back from the break cold and Leppens is chipping away.* He now trails 22-19 after 9.*
Sameh just made a spectacular point I can't really explain.* He and Kang are tied at 23.* Leppens has pulled within 1 of Bury.* Cho and Tran are both working on narrowing their respective deficits, each on a run of 3 and still going.* Cho has tied it up at 29 in the middle of the 21st.* And Leppens has taken the lead over Bury.* And Bury fights back with 2 and retakes at 28-27.* And Leppens fights back with 2 to retake.* Nip and tuck.* And again, Bury makes 2 and retakes.* And now tied at 31.
Holy Cow
Tran has chipped away and is now only down 2
Sameh hit 40 and even if Kang runs 13 to equalize, Sameh will advance on average.* But he doesn't.* No one will be excited to play him in the KO stage.* Cho has also won.* Moorales beat Tran.
Back to Bury and Leppens.* Bury has had a nice stretch and leads 38-31 with the white ball.* I don't know which had the better first game, in case of a draw.* Bury got kissed into 39 and then missed.* Bury went out and Leppens needs 7 to equalize.* It may not matter if Bury had the better first game.
Holy cow!!!* Leppens equalized and someone told me that he qualifies, but I will have to verify that.
Yup, Leppens is in and Bury is out. Reminiscent of last year's final where Blomdahl equalized with 7 After Kang went out 40-33. Difference being that was a KO stage game so there was a shoot-out,
I skipped the last session because I've gotten a little sick and I was just too tired.
