Two rounds of teams were played with interesting clashes
Tuesday, 09 August 2011: Tuesday morning started with the Team's event at the Dynamic European Seniors Championships in the Alvisse Parc Hotel in Luxembourg. The format for the senior's team event is that each team consists of three players. One plays 8-ball (race to 7), one plays 9-ball (race to 9) and one plays 10-ball (race to 7). Whichever team wins two disciplines first, wins the team match. Two rounds were played. In round 1, one of the favourites, the defending Champion Team Portugal kicked Team Italy to the loser's side with a clear 3:0 victory. Even the Italian newly crowned European straight pool champion Stefano Bazzana was not able to prevent his team from going to the wrong side of the chart. Also the other strong teams from Sweden, The Netherlands and last year's runner-up Germany made it to the first winner's round.
The next round provided some more intense action for the spectators. The match between Portugal and Sweden turned out to become a drama. The encounter between Henrique Correia (POR) and Magnus Lindgren (SWE) was a quick affair. Correia was simply too good for Lindgren, defeating him 9:3 in 9-ball. The 10-ball contest between Manuel Pereira (POR) and Kent Karlsson (SWE) was certainly closer. Karlsson was leading 6:5 when he left a shot for Pereira after a safety duel. Pereira played the shot and Karlsson claimed that he had seen a foul. Pereira did not protest against that so Karlsson got ball in hand, running the rack and winning the competition with 7:5. That tied the match between Portugal and Sweden at 1:1. At that point in time, the score in the 8-ball game between Tom Eksell (SWE) and Paulo Costa (POR) was 5:2 in favour of Eksell. But the Swede showed nerves. He kept on missing shots, allowing his opponent to win three racks in a row and tie the match at 5:5. Costa was even able to win another rack since Eksell miscued in the 11th rack, leaving an open table for Costa. As if it was not exciting enough yet, Eksell played an enormously hard rack, making it a hill-hill match at 6:6. In the 13th and final rack, Eksell looked like the winner but he missed the last ball of his group. Costa came to the table and made the remaining balls, winning 7:6 over Eksell and taking the victory into the account of the Portuguese team.
Other notable results include Team Netherlands defeating Team Finland with 3:0, Team Germany winning over Team Norway with 2:1 and Team Belgium defeating Team Hungary with 2:1.
The tournament will now continue with the single elimination stage of the final 32 men standing in the 10-ball competition.
The European Championships are hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epbf.com , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office
