Raymond,

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

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". He was inducted into the

Billiard Congress of America The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States and Canada, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA).` Puerto Rico, though a US territory, and Mexico, though ...

'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

He was born in

Lier, Belgium Lier (; french: Lierre, ) is a municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. It is composed of the city of Lier proper and the village of Koningshooikt. The city centre is surrounded by the river ''Nete'', a ...

. By the age of 7, Ceulemans was playing

on the table in his father's

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non ...

. He also liked to play

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

at the local club. Although he was a good

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

(in 1958 he was discovered by the club

K. Beerschot V.A.C. Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbal en Atletiek Club, now K Beerschot VA was a Belgian football club from Antwerp. The club was founded in 1899 when most players of Antwerp left the club. It played in the 1920 Olympic Games Stadium named the "Kiel ...

but a transfer was never made) he stopped playing football and began to concentrate on billiards.

Professional career

One-cushion-EC 1986 in Dülmen-Gemany, Raymond Ceulemans-1

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 The CEB European Three-cushion Championship is three-cushion billiards tournament organized by the Confédération Européenne de Billard. Held since 1932, it is one of longest-running tournaments in the sport. The 2007 event offered a total purse ...

. A year later he won his first world title at the

UMB World Three-cushion Championship The UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards, organized mostly annually by the Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB). Until 1953 it was organized by the UIFAB (Union ...

with averages of 1.159 and 1.307 per . 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 was a Japanese professional three-cushion billiards player and 2-time world champion. After placing 2nd to Belgium's Raymond Ceulemans three times (1970, 1972 and 1973) in the UMB World Three-cushion Championship, Kobayashi turned things around ...

in finals. He was the first three-cushion player to reach levels of 1.500 and 2.000 average points per .Official bio
Raymond Ceulemans; accessed 2007-02-03 Ceulemans won the first Three-Cushion World Cup in

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

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 .Documents of some players (Spanish)
(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 Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

where he defeated

Marco Zanetti Marco Zanetti (born 10 April 1962) is an Italian professional three-cushion billiards player and a two-time world champion from Bolzano, Italy. Privat Zanetti started playing billiards at 7. He needed a chair to play. His father, Erwin Zanett ...

International and national titles

: 1963–>73, 1975–>80, 1983, 1985, 1990, 2001 (21) *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) *

: 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

Next to the national, European and world titles, Ceulemans won other national and international tournaments, including *International Simonis Cup: 9 victories *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

UMB World Three-cushion Championship

* 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

* General Average (GA): 1986/2 (1,516) *High Run (HR): 1999/5 (15)

CEB European Three-cushion Championship

* 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

Belgian Sportsman of the Year The Belgian Sportsman of the Year is elected at the end of each year by professional sportjournalists and former winners, annually since 1967. A Belgian Sportswoman of the Year title has been given out since 1975. Top winners include Ingrid Berghm ...

: 1967 * Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1978 *Honorary member of the Royal Belgian Billiard Association KBBB *Honorary member of the Royal Dutch Billiard Association KNNB: 1980 *Sportsman of the century of the city Mechelen: 1999 *3rd Sportsman of the century of

Antwerp province ) , native_name_lang = nl , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Antwerp.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van de provincie Antwerpen.svg , shield_size ...

: 2000 *Introduced in the

Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame This is the list of people inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame to honour outstanding people who, through their competitive skills and dedication, have enriched the sport and industry. Two categories have been established in ...

: 2001 *Knight in the Belgian

Order of Leopold II The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Leopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as Sovereign of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgium ...

: 2002 *Honorary member of the European Billiard Confederation: 2007 *Trophy of Legends: 2018

References

External links

Official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ceulemans, Raymond Belgian carom billiards players World champions in three-cushion billiards World Cup champions in three-cushion billiards 1937 births Living people Belgian nobility People from Lier, Belgium Sportspeople from Antwerp Province