Niels Feijen Inaugural Longoni Capelle Open Champion

Last weekend, the inaugural edition of the Longoni Capelle Open was held in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The owners of the venue, Petra and Roy van Straalen, celebrated their 25th anniversary in the billiards business with this fantastic 10-ball event, as well as a 3-cushion Grand Prix. The latter was won by world Champion and Longoni ambassador Dick Jaspers. The Longoni Capelle Open counted no less than ‘147’ entries. A typical number, since Petra and Roy van Straalen contributed immensely to the growth of snooker in the Netherlands, with their five pool and renowned snooker halls. Participants from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and as far as France, Denmark and Sweden attended the event.

 

Four days of qualifications rounds saw the 32 best players emerge to advance to the main tournament on Sunday January 5th 2014. The format of the main tournament was 'double knock out’, races to 7, until the quarter finals, with races to 8, onwards. Throughout the tournament, the 'alternate break' was a in force and the balls were racked with the Magic Ball Rack. The Clash Competition pool tables by Loontjens Biljarts were re-fitted with beautiful brand new Iwan Simonis 860 cloth. The pool tables and Aramith pool balls were brushed and polished, daily, to offer perfect playing conditions.

 

To add value to the event, live streaming video coverage was brought to the audience at home by Ebillard.fr and match results were updated on Facebook. Additionally, some matches were recorded in high definition. Hundreds of fans followed the action.

 

In the end, a high standard of 10-ball was brought to the table by no less than ‘The Terminator’ Niels Feijen, ‘El Niño’ Nick Van Den Berg, ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Huidji See, many other pros and semi-pros. The audience in attendance was treated to 'break and runs’, great tactical safety play, amazing ‘kick shots’, ‘jump shots’, comebacks from near defeat and even ‘donuts’. Eventually, there could only be one winner. In the final, The Terminator bested Kung Fu Panda in an even match up to 6-6. Despite the late hour, Niels Feijen had enough energy reserve to haul in the 8-6 victory with great determination.

 

Feijen had to take a detour on his way to the final, as his fellow Dutch team mate Marco Teutscher sent him to the ‘one loss side’ in the ‘double knock out’ format. Eventually, Feijen was back on course, beating Geordie Sahilatua (7-2 in the 'final 12’), Nick van den Berg (8-2 in the quarter finals), Belgian pro Noël Bruynooghe (8-4 in the semi finals). Huidji See, on the other hand, had a smoother trip towards the final, with five straight wins: 7-1 against Geordie Sahilatua (1st round), 7-2 against Frank Spinnewijn (2nd round), a 7-6 'double hiller’ against fellow Dutch team mate Marc Bijsterbosch, another 7-6 thriller against Daniel Kandi from Denmark in the quarter finals and 8-5 against Jimmy Worung in the semis.

 

The event was more successful than expected and, with great anticipation, the intention to organise the 2015 Longoni Capelle Open has already been announced.

 

The Longoni Capelle Open was brought to you by Longoni, Loontjens Biljarts, Kamui.

 

The final ranking and payouts:

 

Winner €1.000 Niels Feijen
Runner-up €600 Huidji See

Semi-finalists €300 Noël Bruynooghe (B), Jimmy Worung

Quarter-finalists €200 Nick van den Berg, Marc Bijsterbsoch, Daniel Kandi (DK), Marco Teutscher

9th Place €150 Mitch van den Bergh, Martin Steinlage (D), Geordie Sahilatua, Gijs Van Helmond

13th Place €100 Jörgen Haglund (SWE), Hoa Nguyen, Oi Chun Chan, Otman Acharrat

17th Place €60 Joshua Harkelijn, Vincent Hoogendijk, Frank Spinnewijn, Helmut Osterloh (D), Mario Martokarijo, Anthony Wever, Elroy Janssen, Wiresh Laloe

25th Place €40 Alain DaCosta (F), Ralf Zigahn, Arco van der Velden, Nikola Dukiç (F), Lennaert Speijker, Aziz Moussati, Joram Hensens, Jelle Kijlstra