Friday, November 30, 2012
University Snooker and Pool, Heverlee
Leuven vs. Gent, 5-4
The Leuven team:
- Toon Van Herreweghen (1/3)
- Patrick De Wilde (0/2)
- Johan Segers (2/2)
- Marc Van Haverbeke (2/2)
The Gent team:
- Bert Van Kerckhove (1/3)
- Geert Van der Stricht (2/3)
- Johan Vervust (1/3)
Round 1: Leuven vs. Gent, 2-1
Toon – Johan V., 0-1
Johan S. – Geert, 1-0
Marc – Bert, 1-0
Johan V. walks over Toon, 7-0, after a doubled gammon when leading 3-0. Geert is no match against Johan S.’s powerful dice. Marc and Bert reach 5-5, neither player doubles, and Bert wins a point to get to a 6-5 Crawford lead. But Marc survives the Crawford game and wins the double match point. Leuven leads 2-1, but Gent is determined to fight back.
Round 2: Leuven vs. Gent, 1-2
Toon – Geert, 0-1
Patrick – Bert, 0-1
Johan S. – Johan V., 1-0
Again a quick defeat for Toon, 0-7, to Geert. And again Johan S.’s magic dice pop up, leaving Johan V. in the back seat. Patrick reaches a match winning position, Bert having a crunched back game, but loses on time. After 2 rounds, the score is 3-3.
Round 3: Leuven vs. Gent, 2-1
Toon – Bert, 1-0
Patrick – Geert, 0-1
Marc – Johan V., 1-0
Three matches to play; the team that wins two or more matches, will win the 4 Cubes 2012. No luck for Patrick, who loses a doubled backgammon in the first game; Geert leads 6-0. Patrick fights back, wins the Crawford game, but the hill to climb is to steep, and he succumbs. One match already in the pocket for Gent. After heavy fighting, Toon – Bert and Marc – Johan V. both culminate in double match point. Toon is the first to emerge on top. The final game between Marc and Johan V. will decide the 4 Cubes 2012. After a favorable opening sequence, Marc pushes Johan V. back in an ace-point game with too little timing. Marc wins, hardly believing what has happened.
Bottles of champagne are opened, and 4 Cubes tournament director Guy Van Middelem hands over the 4 Cubes trophy from Gent, who has held them since January 2010, to Leuven.
But most importantly, the 4 Cubes competition new style has been success, uniting clubs from Hasselt to Brugge in a live, national, interclub tournament.
See you in 2013!
Toon Van Kerckhove ???
He played Bert Van Herreweghen 🙂 Thanks for proofreading, mistake corrected.
It was a great evening, and a great Belgian-Wide competition overall.
I would like to emphasize the sportive behaviour of Ghent during this final clash. I’ll mention two personal experiences. Firstly, against Bert. After the second game we both forgot to put the doubling cube in the middle, leaving it on Bert’s side. After a long and difficult backgame I got a double which I dropped immediately. Only then I was surprised that the score went up two points instead of one. Bert and I both dug into our short-term memory, and neither could remember the point I would have doubled. So Bert agreed to consider this a dropped initial double. I think he could have stood by the rules and insisted on the two points. Secondly, against Geert. He warned me when I started to make an illegal move which would have been to my disadvantage. This although we hadn’t agreed on the “legal moves” rule. Thank you Geert and Bert for your fine sportsmanship.