NEWS - 02-19-05 IBP Belgium Open 9-Ball – Feijen defeats Roschkowsky

 
The first event of the Eurotour 2005 had been swapped on short notice from Kortrijk to Gent, which is located some 40 km away, since the Billiard café in Kortrijk had closed. Already at the Player’s Meeting David Morris, one of the IBP officials, had tried to apologize for the conditions. The conditions then turned out to be really bad, at least on 18 of the 24 tables. 6 tables were more or less OK, while the temperatures and the very bad air made everything even worse. To make a long story short – if I had had the choice between this venue and not playing this tournament, my decision would have been easy to take. I had rather not played but enjoyed a week-end on the couch.

After a walk-through in round one, I had to play C. Weigoni from Anderten. After a weak start and some missed opportunities, I was trailing 3-7. But then I regained control and at 8-8, I could have won the match. Until the 7 ball, I did what I had to do, but then I did not kill the match. I had already missed the same 7 ball in the first rack and so started the negative run. But at 8-8, and after such a come back into the match, I should really had won the match. Instead, a bit later, I played A. Ewald from Poland in the losers bracket. I played well and fully deserved to win 9-3. The next day, my opponent was J. LLanos (ARG), whom I defeated also 9-3 after a 6-0 lead and a good performance. In my next match against D. Larsson (SWE) I had not much of an opportunity at the beginning. I had to sit and watch the Swede take a 6-1 lead. After two break fouls I made better use of my opportunities and fought my way back into the match until 7-7. The decision came when Larsson played to take the lead and lost the cue ball in the middle pocket, thus giving me the first lead in this match. I then ran out the last rack to finally win 9-7. In the next match against M. Kirsten who plays for Dachau, it ccontinued as it had started against Larsson. I did not really come into the match and was trailing all the time. At 5-5, I had the first chance to take the lead, but played a bad position when playing a combination 5 on 6 and I snookered myself. When trying to play a safety shot, I lost the cue ball. At 5-7, we played safety shots back and forth. I then decided to attack and solved the three major problems on the table. The remaining four ball on the table should not had posed any problem, but I missed the 6 ball and was trailing 5-8. In the next rack, Kirsten shot an ace and sealed my early elimination. Rank 49 was a very bad result, but finally matched the conditions, this is why I do not add a picture of the venue.