News

Last weekend the first Belgium Ranking of the season was played in Play Ball (Hasselt) and Riley Inn (Genk). Following on from last season, this was again a great success. Due to the large number of participants 164 the tournament had to be played on 24 tables.

The level of play was of a very high standard with a lot of high breaks.  A total of 66 breaks of 50 and higher were made in the event and Daan Leyssen topped the high break board with a 120.

The most notable name entered was 2 times European Champion Bjorn Haneveer.  Bjorn who doesn’t enter many events showed that he is still competitive, beating David De Sadeleer 3-0 making breaks of 68 and 66. The most exciting game was probably the match between Phuntsok Jaegers and Lieven Vanthournout.  Vanthournout started very strong making a break of 70 to take the first frame. Jaegers then won the second and the third frame with breaks of 55 and 38 to get a 2-1 lead. In frame four Vantournhout made another 70 break to level the score at 2-2. In a close fifth and deciding frame Jaegers managed to win the match on the black.

In the last 112 two times Belgian Under 16 Champion Wesley Pelgrims showed his ability defeating Bart Martens 3-0. The youngster made a top break of 67. In the last 80 Serge Lénaerts, who hadn’t played in a number of years, just missed out on a century break making 99 in his 3-0 victory against Harry Fernandez.  In the last 64 Jeff Jacobs who returned to Belgium after a spell in England had a convincing 3-0 win over Wim Ruyts.   The 2 times Belgian Under 21 champion made breaks of 60, 52 and 46.

In the last 32 Rohnny Cleynen had a good result beating Chris T’Syen 3-2. Rohnny won the first frame making a break of 46 before Chris won the next two to take a 2-1 lead. Breaks of 71 and 76 gave Rohnny the last two frames, to make it a 3-2 win. Kevin Van Hove made a 109 break in his first match against Marchica Vincenzo and went on to win the match 3-1 and secure his place in the last 16.

In the last 16 Johny Moermans emerged as the 3-1 victor against Steve Lambrechts. Steve won the first frame making a break of 88 and started well in the second frame with a 46 break before Johny replied with a run of 38 to level the match at 1-1. Johny then made a 64 break to go 2-1 ahead. In frame four Steve started with a break of 38 before Johny made a 31 break to secure his place in the quarter finals. Also in the last 16 Bjorn Haneveer defeated reigning Belgium Champion Peter Bullen 3-0.

The match to look forward to in the quarter finals was the one between Kevin Van Hove and Tomasz Skalski. Kevin took an early 3-0 lead after making breaks of 93 and 48. Tomasz made a 63 break to secure the fourth frame and produced a magical 105 break in frame five to get back to 3-2. A 48 break in frame six was enough to give Kevin a 4-2 victory and his place in the semifinals. Johny Moermans had a very close 4-3 win over Tim Van Goubergen and Bjorn Haneveer continued on his winning ways  in his 4-0 victory against youngster Amedeo Durnez. Jeff Jacobs once again showed good form with a 4-1 win against Rohnny Cleynen.

The first semifinal was a very close match between ex-professional Bjorn Haneveer and Jeff Jacobs. Jeff started well getting a 2-0 lead after making a break of 60 in the first frame. In frame three a break of 38 from Jeff wasn’t enough as Bjorn countered with a 63 break to get back to a 2-1 score line. In frame four Bjorn made a 49 break to level the scores at 2-2. The next two frames where shared and in the deciding frame Jeff made a 52 break to claim his final spot.  In the other semifinal Kevin Van Hove gave Johny Moermans no chance at all. Breaks of 34, 63, 100 and 50 secured him an emphatic 4-0 victory.

In the final the 2007 European Champion Kevin Van Hove had a 5-3 win over Jeff Jacobs making a top break of 69.

All match results can be found on the following link http://www.vsf-brabant.be/nl/tornooien/resultaten/412/br-belgium-ranking-1