(15 Nov 1997) Eng/Flemish/Nat
Belgium -- famous for its beers and fine chocolates has another claim to fame -- it practically has the world's billiard ball market in its pocket.
An amazing eight out of ten billiard balls played with the world over are manufactured in Belgium.
They come from a small Belgian town near the French border.
Pot a ball in a London snooker club or a Los Angeles bar and the chances are the ball comes from Belgium.
Billiards may be originally a British game but the game has an ever increasing following worldwide.
It will even become an Olympic demonstration sport at the Sydney Olympics in the year 2000, and a fully fledged Olympic sport by 2004.
In Belgium billiards has become popular enough to make this man something of a national hero.
With over a hundred international competitions and 39 world champion titles under his belt, Raymond Ceulemans has earned the nickname: 'Mister Hundred.'
His success has secured the tiny European country a place on the world billiards map.
SOUNDBITE: (Flemish)
"I think that the billiard game is well known in the world. Everywhere there are billiard players. Maybe you can find fewer billiard players in Australia or China, because you can find more pool and snooker games. For example in Korea there are a lot of billiard players, even in Latin America. On the other hand in North America there are more pool players and in the entire of Europe there are billiard players. I think that everybody has played billiards at some time in his life. So this proves that the popularity of billiards is enormous."
SUPER CAPTION: Raymond Ceulemans, billiard champion
When Ceulemans' international success was followed by a succession of high-ranking Belgian players, ball manufacturer Billes Saluc also edged towards the spotlight.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"In Belgium you have a lot of very good and top players in the game, and this is a big help for an industry like us."
SUPER CAPTION: Philippe Janssens, manager of Saluc Billiard ball factory
This Belgian company, situated in the small town of Callenelle, produces a breathtaking eighty-five percent of all billiard balls played with around the world.
The company manufacturers eight-hundred different kinds of balls - making fifty thousand balls a day.
The balls are made out of a byproduct of petroleum which is cooked, squeezed, rubbed, baked and polished.
The end result.............a perfectly rounded, balanced and smooth sphere of a precise weight that has taken around three weeks to perfect.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The difference is basically the following, it is a very big difference due to the fact that Saluc Belgium is manufacturing themselves the phenolic resins being used to make the billiard balls. Phenolic resin is by far the best material, because it is very close to the specifications of the ivory ball being used in the past."
SUPER CAPTION: Philippe Janssens, manager of Saluc Billiard ball factory
The exact production process, however, remains a well kept secret, allowing Billes Saluc to remain the most successful billiard ball producer in the world.
It is by closely guarding this secret that the Belgian company hopes to remain ahead of its South East Asian competitors.
Belgian players such as Raymond Ceulemans, meanwhile, hope to remain ahead of their competitors on the world's green felted tables.
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