Ine Helvik

Bernadette De Jonge and I. Photo courtesy Sjef Creusen

Ardennen Cup is a great tournament, but this year it was hot hot hot!! I felt like I was playing in a sauna at times, sweat running and cheeks red. But we had fun:)

In Womens Eurotour tournament I ended up 33rd, just outside the single elimination. I really struggled in the heat and I fell short. I lost my first match against Christine Feldmann ( SUI) 2-5. missing all the important shots and she did not. Next match against Ortenzia Haefliger (SUI) was better, I remembered to play safe instead of missing the difficult key shots:) I won 5-1. Against Marketa Mlejnkova (CZE) I played better again and won 5-3. Then it was time for the LQ and now Christien Wiechert (GER) was my opponent. I started to play really good, just to mess it up in the end. I just got out of position on the last ball or the 8-ball time and time again and Christine played very well. She won 5-1. The simply made the ultimate sin in 8-ball, clear the table and solve all the problems before I let my opponent back on the table:(

Ina Kaplan (GER) won the tournament, Caroline Roos (SWE) was the runner up and Jasmin Michel (GER) and Nahtalie Seichter (NED) came third. Well done all!

Caroline Roos on the table, getting ready for the final

Ina Kaplan and Marc Meyer (main organizer)

June and I found a team mate for the teams, Tim J La Fazia II from US. We had great fun and won a few matches. The ultimate win was against Team ABC:) Tim won the 10-ball against Jörgen Sandman, June won the 9-ball against Elkhem Eisajan and I got my ass kicked in 8-ball by Mats Schjetne. 2-1 for My Team-:,0) Wohoo! Thanks guys for all the fun.

Here are some pictures of Jörgen with a cue! This is not something you see every day:) Sitting in the back is Mats and Kristina Grim (GER)

Mats did a great job in the main tournament. He finished 5th, loosing 5-6 in the QF. Well done!

Mats Schjetne in the QF

Thanks Team ABC for all the support and fun these last few days. Also thanks to Marc Meyer, Nahtalie Meyer-Venneker and all you guys making food and working for us.

And last but not least, thanks to the Swedish (and Austrian) girls for all the good laughs!

Now it is time for some last work before my vacation starts. Looking forward to that. I am not sure what my next tournament will be. Bergen Open is in august but i have not yet decided if I will play or not. Players like Efren Reyes and Niels Feijen will be there so it will be a good tournament, we will see what happens:)

Thanks for reading!

Ine:)