NEWS - 02-04-05  Weert Open 9-Ball – Lee Chenman the surprise



Maurice - Django

At the sixth edition of the Weert Open in the House of Billiards, 300 participants completed an excellent field. Owner Maurice Houben had done everything possible to welcome the European top players. I was only a bit puzzled by the fact that if a player missed the qualification, he could buy himself into the last qualification group played on Sunday morning.

In the sure strongest preliminary group 2 of 64 players played on Friday, I played in my first match Dutchman A. Franz and won 6-0. In my next match against J. Kauhanen from Finland, I could maintain my good shape and win 6-1. In my third match, I played K. tanaka from Japan who lives in Belgium and I kept him well under control - 6-1. In my forth match, I was opposed to T. Makela. The player from Finland missed a good opportunity and paid cash - 0-6. And I was qualified for the final 32 player round in KO format.

Other qualifiers of this group for the final round were from the winners bracket:
F. Bustamante (PHI), T. Engert (GER), R. Hebles (ESP)
And from the losers bracket: M. Immonen (FIN), H. Oslerloh (GER), R. Diks (NED), S. Trautmann (GER)

In the final round, my first opponent was J. Thehu from Holland. I played well and only committed one mistake towards the end of the match when I tried a safety shot. At an intermediate score of 5-5, I had a bad contact on the 1 ball and missed it. In the next rack, I had played a very good safety. The Dutchman hit the ball with a rail shot, and the 1 ball travelled via two more rails onto the 9 and potted it to lead 5-7. Then I committed the mentioned mistake and lost the match 5-8. So, the dream of a good result in Weert was over – rank 17 was nothing exciting for me in Weert.

In the semi-finals, it came to the following matches: M. Immonen (FIN) – N. van den Berg (NED) 5-9 and A. Lely (NED) – L. Chenman (ENG) 8-9. The final was played in a race to 10 and the winner, who could not qualify for the final round in the first place, since he had lost to W. Jans from Belgium 1-5, made the impossible possible. In spite of two defeats, he won the final 10-6 against N. van den Berg.

Let me ask this question: How often a player can lose in a tournament, without losing any credibility of the press and the media?
Anyway – congratulations to the winner and I sure do not want to lower his performance in any way.




Ring Game

Ring Game – Django plays unbelievable billiards

As a nice and attractive „side product“ of the 9-Ball event, the promoters had organized a Ring Game 10-Ball with the following players: M. Immonen, M. Chamat, T. Engert, N. Feijen, N. van den Berg, F. Bustamante and R. Souquet.

Many spectators had come to assist the quite different show on the Center Court on a table with beige Simonis 860 cloth. As so often in the Ring Game, 2 players had to bite the dust and make a cross over the 6,000 Euro prize money. Feijen and Immonen had each just one opportunity to play an open ball during the first 15 racks, but could not make use of this opportunity. Bustamante was not much luckier and was short before the KO. In the rack of his last chance, he cleared a very difficult table and then ran out four more racks. He managed to make the 10 ball three times upon his break. After this firework, it did not take long and N. van den Berg was finished and exited as the third player. Until then, I made use of each opportunity to win a match and played without any mistake. My only weak point was the break and I managed only once to make a ball after my 8 wins. After being „all in“ for the first time, I could survive once more and eliminated M. Chamat. Now, only three players competed for the title. One more time I was very much under pressure, but then won the game where I had to bet all the money. I got another opportunity, but had to try a three ball combination which I missed. Bustamante made use of this opportunity and exploded my hopes to win. In the show-down player vs. Player, the intermediate score was Bustamante € 6,000 vs. Engert € 650. The German won the next rack and the score evolved to € 5,350 to € 1,300. At the next break by Engert, the 10 ball was already on its way to the pocket, but two centimetres before falling, it was stopped by another ball right in the middle of the pocket. Two turns later, the player from the Philippines made the combination to pocket the last 10 ball. He had won and the audience visibly enjoyed a great evening.


Theresia - Ralf


Wendy - Ralf