The three- cushion world cup 1988/5 was the 5th world cup tournament in the third year of the three-cushion world cup. It took place from December 9th to 11th, 1988 in this discipline of carom billiards in the Casino of Valkenburg (South Holland) .
A novelty occurred at the World Cup tournament in Valkenburg. For the first time, a supplementary player won the tournament. The 57-year-old Belgian ex-world champion in cadre 71/2 won all his games and also played an excellent GD with 1.395 . Actually, Boulanger was qualified for the 1987 World Cup thanks to his victory in the 1987 qualifying tournament in Spa / Belgium, in which he took first place among 128 participants. Due to a rule in the World Cup, however, he could not take part, as only two players are allowed per nation. With Raymond Ceulemans and Ludo Dielis , the places were already taken. In 1988 he finished third in Spa. But he got a wildcard for the tournament in Valkenburg. Here he showed his skills. In the semifinals he defeated his compatriot Raymond Ceulemans, who had been outstanding in the last 25 years, in three sets with 45:14 in 18 shots. In a hard-fought final, he finally won against the two-time three- cushion world champion Nobuaki Kobayashi from Japan with 3-1 sets. Boulanger, very popular in Belgium, was then voted Belgian Sportsman of the Year in January 1989. After Ceulemans it was only the second billiard athlete who succeeded in this.
The exact price money could not be determined from the documents. However, as in all BWA World Cup tournaments, it was at least 100,000 DM.
The tournament was played with 16 participants. The whole tournament was played in the KO system with three sets of 15 points each.
The first four of the world rankings (in this case Torbjörn Blomdahl, Jun'ichi Komori, Richard Bitalis and Raymond Ceulemans) were seeded for the round of 16.
If a set was completed at 15 points by player one, player two had no follow-up kick.
Final round
The tournament tree for the final round is listed below. Legend: SP / Pkte / Aufn / ED / HS
The three-cushion World Cup was organized by the founding association, the " Billiards Worldcup Association " (BWA) until 1998 . Disputes between the BWA and the world association Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) led to parallel tournaments between 1994 and 1997. The UMB / BWA organized the tournament together until the beginning of 1999. Since the dissolution of the BWA in 1999, the UMB has been the sole organizer. From 1988-1991 the UMB did not host any world championships. During this time, the annual overall winner of the World Cup was crowned world champion.