This past week were delighted to welcome a group of people involved in the Juanjo Trilles Challenge – a billiards challenge between the two top players in the world (Dick Jaspers and Frederic Caudron) to determine who really is the best player over a match of long duration – four days – thereby minimising any factor of luck that could be associated with shorter games.
The tournament was being streamed live by the Kozoom organisation, and we provided accommodation not only for their production crew and executives, but also for some celebrities from the billiards world itself. Billiards is hugely popular in many countries of mainland Europe, and this was reflected in the guests who stayed at Villa Florencia Casa Rural.
The Kozoom production team arrived on Monday, followed on Tuesday by the billiards celebrities Jean Claude Dupont (president of the UMB the world federation of billiards) and his wife, and then Raymond Ceulemans and his wife (who has won 35 world titles, 48 European titles and 61 national titles). Both these prominent figures come from Belgium, and they were joined later in the day by the Frenchman Bernard Boudoin, ranked third in Europe, with his wife.
The tournament itself got underway on the Wednesday and lasted until Saturday, and consisted of morning sessions with a break for lunch, and then followed by further sessions later in the afternoon. The Kozoom team and the other guests would often return to us during the middle part of the day for a rest and some relaxation around the pool and in the gardens, before being collected later in the day for the remaining sessions of the tournament. Evenings were taken up with dinners at the premises of the tournament before a final return to Villa Florencia and nightcaps in the garden.
The whole event was a great success and ended with a gala dinner and party on the Saturday night with fireworks, dancing and entertainment. It was really great to be able to welcome such a different mixture of guests from our usual clientele, and so very interesting to meet people who are true stars and celebrities in their chosen sport. This is the second billiards event hosted by Juanjo Trilles – last year was an event for Artistic Billiards – and we look forward to the possibility of future events of a similar nature.
