Schiltigheim, France

March 22-25 2012

Since the Crystal Kelly Tournament no longer takes place the AGIPI Masters is our by far biggest tournament with a unique format and already in the fifth year a great tradition. Sponsor and AGIPI owner Claude Vath can be proud. And so are the players. Most of all the eight quarter finalists.

One arrives with a great feeling of having accomplished somthing big though looking for more. Filipos Kasidokostas was seeded first and I eighth so we would meet. First Kim crushed Sanchez and last year’s winner Choi edged past Merckx. Martin Horn came from 20-3 behind Jaspers to ease through for an impressive 50-34 win.

My match against the Greek got a very surprising start. After 7 innings I could not believe what I was seeing: 31-0! The greek, obviously out of order, never found his style and I could record one of my largest wins: 50-7 in 20 innings. Now semi final against Choi.

Just before the match, I had been to the hotel to change, my wife and some friends surprised me with their presence and I went in with an even better feeling. As I made a run of 20 in the second inning it was like entering dreamland, the 14th beeing an umbrella shot over a large distance. I went on and made another 13 run in the 13th inning and could finish with 1 in the 14th for 50-21.Final!!

For a long time it looked like Martin Horn, the man on form, would be my final opponent. At 43-38 he made a rare miss on a bank shot and the Korean ran 12 and out!

Kyung-Roul Kim did not get a good start in the final and as I looked up on the score board and saw that I had 27 points in 9 innings it seemed like I woke up from my dream. Including the last qualification match against Tasdemir I had made 177 in the last 61 innings, 2,900! Too much!

Now I started to make some mistakes but Kim never found his rythm and as I made the last point for a 50-31 win in 29 innings I secured my second AGIPI Masters title and could receive the congratulations from my youngest son who attended (most of the time not inside the auditorium) the final with my wife.

Thanks to my family and everybody who encouraged and supported me. I meam team members, other colleagues, sponsors and friends.