77th UMB World Championship 3-Cushion Individual

Call it the third stage of his career if you will. Frédéric Caudron was the world’s number one multi-discipline player for many years, changed career paths to become the number one player in the Korean PBA, returned to the World Cup circuit two years ago, and has now added a fourth UMB world title to his resume. He was world champion earlier in 1999 (Bogota), 2013 (Antwerp) and 2017 (Santa Cruz).

Not everything was smooth sailing for Caudron after his return to the UMB. He got unexpectedly beaten a few times in World Cups and had to work hard on a steady climb in the rankings. A recent double hip replacement may have made his work a bit harder still. In this event, the world championships, he only advanced out of the group on average. From then: flashes of brilliance with wins over Roland Forthomme (50-22 in 19), Thomas Andersen (50-27 in 27/26), Martin Horn (50-24 in 16), Arnim Kahofer (50-14 in 22/21) and finally Eddy Merckx (50-47 in 32/31). 

The final had a nervy start, both players producing one’s and two’s and zeroes in the first ten innings. Merckx had a 34-22 lead when Caudron attacked with 12 and 5. He got to 48-44 and missed on three consecutive innings, Merckx producing 1-1-1. It was extremely tense. In the end, it was the shortening table that proved fatal for Merckx: he just couldn’t score from twice-around lines. Inevitably, Caudron took his chance and ran two and out.  

The first semifinal was an hour of suffering for tournament revelation Arnim Kahofer. He honestly had very little left in the tank, and Caudron was just too good: 50-14 in 21. Kahofer ended the match with nine consecutive zeroes. Hopefully, he’ll remember his fine wins over Thai, Heo and de Bruijn and take it from there. 

The second semifinal was a spectacle to behold. Myung Woo Cho and Merckx hitting each other with run after run: 9, 7, 6,6 on Merckx’s score card, a 7 and an 18 on Cho’s. The Korean had a 47-42 lead when Merckx ran 7, and one more in the next inning. It took the world title away from the reigning champion.   

The Belgian organisation proudly looked back at two weeks of world-class billiards. They threw the full weight of the Ceulemans family behind it, and were rewarded with an all-Belgian final between the two best the country has. It was a dream scenario. 

The general average of the Antwerp world championship (last 32) was 1.603.

The highest individual general average was played by Tayfun Tasdemir: 2.189. 

The high run of the event was 18, made by Myung Woo Cho and Roland Forthomme. 

The best match was played by Jeremy Bury with 40 in 11. 

Frédéric Caudron is now on four world titles, equal to Dani Sánchez (4) and behind only Raymond Ceulemans (21), Torbjörn Blomdahl (6) and Dick Jaspers (5). 

UMB.