Raymond Ceulemans
| File:Ceulemans.jpg Raymond Ceulemans in 2011 | |
| Born | 12 July 1937 Lier, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Sport country | File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium |
| Nickname | Mr. 100[1] |
| Professional | 1961–2001 |
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| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Representing File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium | ||
| Men's Three-cushion billiards | ||
| UMB World Championship | ||
| Gold medal – first place | Neuss 1963 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Oostende 1964 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Hilversum 1965 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Buenos Aires 1966 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Lima 1967 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Düren 1968 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Tokyo 1969 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Las Vegas 1970 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Groningen 1971 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Buenos Aires 1972 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Cairo 1973 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | La Paz 1975 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Ostend 1976 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Tokyo 1977 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Las Vegas 1978 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Lima 1979 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Buenos Aires 1980 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Aix-les-Bains 1983 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Heeswijk-Dinther 1985 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Tokyo 1990 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Luxembourg 2001 | Three-cushion |
| Silver medal – second place | Antwerp 1974 | Three-cushion |
| Silver medal – second place | Tokyo 1991 | Three-cushion |
| Silver medal – second place | Tokyo 1992 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Krefeld 1984 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Las Vegas 1986 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Tokyo 1988 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Tokyo 1989 | Three-cushion |
| World Cup | ||
| Gold medal – first place | 1986 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | 1987 | Three-cushion |
| CEB European Championship | ||
| Gold medal – first place | Kaatsheuvel 1962 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Brussels 1963 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Copenhagen 1964 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Vienna 1965 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Lisbon 1966 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Angoulême 1967 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Madrid 1968 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | The Hague 1969 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Tournai 1970 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Geel 1971 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Dortmund 1972 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Eeklo 1974 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Rotterdam 1975 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Valencia 1976 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Lausanne 1977 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Copenhagen 1978 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Düren 1979 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Helsingborg 1980 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Vienna 1981 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Porto 1982 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Dunkirk 1983 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Waalwijk 1987 | Three-cushion |
| Gold medal – first place | Cairo 1992 | Three-cushion |
| Silver medal – second place | Vejle 1988 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Triest 1961 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Amersfoort 1985 | Three-cushion |
| Bronze medal – third place | Dordrecht 1991 | Three-cushion |
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Raymond Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 European titles (23 in three-cushion) and 61 national titles. His nickname is "Mr 100".[1] He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2001, one of the first non-Americans to receive the honour.
In October 2003, King Albert II of Belgium honoured Raymond Ceulemans by awarding him a knighthood (Ridderschap) in recognition of his lifetime achievements.
Early life
[edit | edit source]He was born in Lier, Belgium. By the age of 7, Ceulemans was playing billiards on the table in his father's café. He also liked to play association football at the local club. Although he was a good midfielder (in 1958 he was discovered by the club K. Beerschot V.A.C. but a transfer was never made) he stopped playing football and began to concentrate on billiards.
Professional career
[edit | edit source]
In 1961 at the age of 23 Ceulemans won his first Belgian three-cushion title. In 1962 he won his first CEB European Three-cushion Championship.
A year later he won his first world title at the UMB World Three-cushion Championship with averages of 1.159 and 1.307 points per inning. He went on to win the title 11 times in row. The winning streak came to end in 1974 when he lost to Nobuaki Kobayashi in finals. He was the first three-cushion player to reach levels of 1.500 and 2.000 average points per inning.[2]
Ceulemans won the first Three-Cushion World Cup in Paris, France in 1986; two more titles followed in 1987 and 1990. In 1998 he tied the world record held by Junichi Komori of Japan during professional match play by scoring 28 points in a single inning.[3] (The record was later broken.)
Ceulemans won the European three-cushion championship 23 times and defended it 19 times.
Ceulemans also won 21 UMB World three-cushion championships. Additionally he has prevailed in 16 title defenses.
At the age of 64 Ceulemans won his latest UMB world title in 2001 in Luxembourg where he defeated Marco Zanetti.
International and national titles
[edit | edit source]- UMB World Three-cushion Championship: 1963–>73, 1975–>80, 1983, 1985, 1990, 2001 (21)[4]
- UMB World One-cushion Championship: 1968, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1984 (6)
- UMB World Balkline 47/1 Championship: 1976
- UMB World Straight rail Championship: 1969
- UMB World Pentathlon Championship: 1965, 1972, 1974, 1975 (4)
- UMB Three-Cushion World Cup: 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990–2, 1990–4, 1991, 1992, 1993 (8)
- UMB Three-Cushion World Cup Overall Champion: 1986, 1987, 1990 (3)
- UMB Three-cushion Grand Prix: 1987, 1988–1, 1988–3, 1991, 1992, 1995 (6)
- CEB European Three-cushion Championship: 1962–>72, 1974–>83, 1987, 1992 (23)
- CEB European One-cushion Championship: 1963–>1967, 1969, 1970, 1977–>79, 1984–>86 (13)
- CEB European Balkline 71/2 Championship: 1963, 1966, 1968, 1971, 1979 (5)
- CEB European Balkline 47/1 Championship: 1976
- CEB European Pentathlon Championship: 1973, 1979 (2)
- CEB European Pentathlon Championship (national teams): 1969, 1971, 1975, 1992 (4)
- CEB European Cup: 1967,1968, 1969, 1986 (4)
- CEB Grand Prix: 1987, 1988 (2)
- Belgian Three-cushion Championship: 1961, 1962, 1964–>68, 1970–>81, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1999, 2001 (24)
- Belgian Cup: 1992, 1994, 2001 (3)
Other tournament titles
[edit | edit source]Next to the national, European and world titles, Ceulemans won other national and international tournaments, including
- International Simonis Cup: 9 victories[5]
- Rotterdam Briljant Toernooi: 2 victories in 1991 and 1992
- Wetsteijn toernooi: 1 victory in 1991
- Boerinnekes Pentathlon Antwerp: 15 victories
- Schaal Van Laere tournament Gent: 20 victories
Records
[edit | edit source]UMB World Three-cushion Championship
[edit | edit source]- General Average (GA): 1963 (1,307), 1966 (1,345), 1973 (1,478), 1976 (1,500), 1978 (1,679), 1986 (1,745)
- Special Average (SA): 1963 (2,068), 1966 (2,500), 1986 (2,631)
- High Run (HR): 1974 (14), 1975 (15), 1980 (15)
Three-Cushion World Cup
[edit | edit source]- General Average (GA): 1986/2 (1,516)
- High Run (HR): 1999/5 (15)
CEB European Three-cushion Championship
[edit | edit source]- General Average (GA): 1963 (1,238), 1969 (1,538), 1971 (1,621), 1991 (1,808)
- Special Average (SA): 1964 (1,764), 1965 (1,818), 1965 (2,068), 1969 (2,222), 1972 (2,875)
- High Run (HR): 1964 (17), 1973 (20)
Honours and awards
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- Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1966[6]
- Belgian Sportsman of the Year: 1967[7]
- Honorary member of the Royal Belgian Billiard Association KBBB
- Honorary member of the Royal Dutch Billiard Association KNNB: 1980[8]
- Sportsman of the century of the city Mechelen: 1999
- 3rd Sportsman of the century of the Antwerp province: 2000
- Introduced in the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame: 2001
- File:BEL - Order of Leopold - Knight bar.svg Knight in the Belgian Order of Leopold II: 2002[9]
- Honorary member of the European Billiard Confederation: 2007
- Trophy of Legends: 2018[10]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b Raymond Ceulemans Bio at BCA website Archived 31 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Official bio, Raymond Ceulemans; accessed 2007-02-03
- ^ Documents of some players (Spanish) Archived 2 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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External links
[edit | edit source]Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
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