Clement van Hassel

Clement van Hassel
Van Hassel at the Cadre 47/2 European Championship in Groningen in 1953
Personal details
birthday	March 16, 1920
place of birth	Belgium
date of death	November 17, 2003
nationality	Belgium
Achievements Unless otherwise stated, the information relates to the “three cushion” discipline.
World Championships:
1 ×
Continental Championships:
8 ×
Other tournaments:
s. successes
Societies)
BC "de Boerinnekes"

Advertisement for his company (1948)

Medal list of the Pentathlon tournament

Clément van Hassel (born March 16, 1920 in Belgium ; † November 17, 2003 ) was a Belgian carom player in the classic disciplines of free game , cadre and binding .

Career

Sports

Clément van Hassel was unlucky to be born late and came at an age when athletes started taking part in tournaments and improved their performance during the tournament break caused by the war, so that he was only able to gain international tournament experience much later than other players. As long as van Hassel was able to train and play during the war, and many billiard tables were "misused" due to the shortage of materials and firewood, he used every opportunity to improve his performance. After the end of the war, he did not start at national tournaments, as is generally the case, but instead concentrated on world and European championships, and it only took three years to win the first European championship and another to become world champion. Seven more European titles followed. From the beginning of the 1950s he also played increasingly at Belgian championships. In addition to participating in tournaments, van Hassel had to take care of two shops and, as a functionary, to take care of club work and tournament organization, so that participation in world championships became less and less due to the necessary travel activities and he limited his sphere of activity. During his career, Van Hassel won a total of 30 medals at world and European championships, including eight gold medals, and 25 medals at Belgian championships, including 10 gold medals.

Functionary and entrepreneur

In 1941 the billiards club "de Boerinnekes" (Flemish for peasant women), of which van Hassel was a member from the beginning, was founded in the buffet (restaurant / bar) of the Antwerp Royal Flemish Opera . He was an active member and co-organizer of the international pentathlon tournament and later an honorary member of the club. The hall had three tables, one tournament billiards , one half- match billiards and one match billiards . While the performance was going on in the opera, billiards were played at the highest level in the bar. Shortly before the break between the opera performances, the doorbell rang loudly in the bar, then all the tables were quickly cleared and the billiards covered in order to be able to receive the guests during the break.

As early as 1942, with van Hassel's cooperation and commitment, the first planning began for an internationally oriented invitation tournament in the Pentathlon , which was held for the first time in 1951 and took place annually until 1982. Over the years, the elite of carom players took part, including: Piet van de Pol , Henny de Ruijter , René Vingerhoedt , Jos Vervest , August Tiedtke , Tony Schrauwen , Walter Lütgehetmann , Siegfried Spielmann , Henk Scholte , Johann Scherz , Dieter Müller , José Gálvez Manzano , Emile Wafflard , Laurent Boulanger , Léo Corin , Joaquín Domingo , Jean Marty , Raymond Ceulemans , Ludo Dielis , Jan Arnouts , Christ van der Smissen , ... and of course van Hassel himself.

In 1952, van Hassel took over the bar himself, from the previous tenant Piet Meyers. Clément, who was looking for a quiet space for his training, found him there in the attached cellar, where Tony Schrauwen trained and taught. When the Pentathlon World Championship was held in Antwerp in 1965 , the Japanese participant Kōya Ogata was regularly present in the bar.

Clément and his second wife Polleke successfully continued the business for another 40 years. At the beginning of the 1990s it became quieter in the salon, Clément and Polleke gave up the business, but the new manager did not know anything about billiards, in 1995 he gave up and closed the billiards salon forever after more than 50 years of existence. Even before taking over the establishment, van Hassel had been running a shop with its own manufacture of billiards and accessories since the mid-1940s.

Honors

• In 2006, the Belgian Post issued a commemorative stamp with a face value of € 0.52 as part of a sports series.

successes

International

• Free game world championship : 1949 1953
• Cadre 47/2 World Championship : 1949, 1951
• European Free Match Championships : 1951/1, 1951/2, 1952, 1956 1950, 1959 1954, 1955
• Cadre 45/1 European Championship : 1947
• Cadre 45/2 European Championship : 1948
• Cadre 47/1 European Championship : 1953 1964
• Cadre 47/2 European Championship : 1952 1949, 1951, 1953 1950, 1965
• Cadre 71/2 European Championship : 1950, 1954 1951 1947, 1953
• Single cover European championship : 1950 1953, 1964

Swell:

National

• Belgian Binding Championship: 1963, 1964
• Belgian Cadre 47/1 Championship: 1964 1960, 1963, 1965
• Belgian Cadre 47/2 Championship: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 1964, 1965 1949, 1954, 1956, 1958
• Belgian Cadre 71/2 Championship: 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, 1965 1957 1958
• Belgian Free Game Championship: 1957, 1964

Swell:

Web links

Commons : Clement van Hassel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 1958 European Free Match Championship video on British Pathé (1:04 min.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Clément van Hassel. Biljartvereniging Geertruidenberg 1977, archived from the original on October 8, 2019 ; Retrieved November 1, 2019 (Dutch).  
2. ^ Dieter Haase, Heinrich Weingartner : Encyclopedia of Billiards . 1st edition. tape 1 . Verlag Heinrich Weingartner, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-200-01489-3 , p. 8 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c} player profile. Kozoom , accessed November 1, 2019 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Filip Steurs: Geschiedenis van De Boerinnekens en het Pentathlontoernooi. 2011-12-07. BC de Deken, archived from the original on November 1, 2019 ; Retrieved November 1, 2019 (Dutch).  
5. ↑ ^{a b} Belgian Champions. (PDF) Koninklijke Belgische Biljartbond (KBBB), August 16, 2019, archived from the original on November 1, 2019 ; Retrieved November 1, 2019 (Dutch).  
6. ↑ Champions internationaux belges - Billiards - 1949. Clément Van Hassel commemorative stamp. Union Postale Universelle, April 24, 2006, archived from the original on November 1, 2019 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
7. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards World Championships (free game). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
8. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - World Championships (Cadre 47/2 - until 1946/47 Cadre 45/2). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on May 25, 2016 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
9. ↑ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - European Championships (free game). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
10. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - European Championships (Cadre 45/1 or from 1952/53 47/1). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
11. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - European Championships (Cadre 45/2, from 1948/49 47/2). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
12. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - European Championships (Cadre 71/2). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .  
13. ^ Karlheinz Heckert: Billiards - European Championships (cover). Sport-komplett.de, archived from the original on August 4, 2004 ; accessed on November 1, 2019 .