Carom Series
The Netherlands- Round 4 was very important for Cubri/Etikon, YEL and Topteam s'Lands Welvaren. Was Cubri/Etikon able to take back the leading position in the ranking ?, How would YEL deal with the pressure of being on top of the leaderboard up till now ?, Did Frédéric Caudron had a mean plan to spoil the party in Haarlo ? In Haarlo they had a Full House and every spectator was sitting on the edge of his/her seat, with respect to the other 6 teams ; all eyes were focussed towards the eastern part of Holland.
Raymund Swertz did something for the first time in his life, he beat Henri Tilleman in the Dutch Championship Series Carom for teams. But two hours later that was just a statistic fact, Michel van Silfhout and Fabian Blondeel both lost their matches so the Derby ended in a rather easy win for the 5-time Dutch Champions, Cubri/Etikon. Patrick Niessen finished his Baulkline 71/2 match in 2 innings and Jean-Paul de Bruijn had a pretty comfortable game because of his 54 run in the opening inning. After that YEL had some time to think about what went wrong and they were hoping Topteam s'Lands Welvaren to do them a favour by winning their confrontation with the local heroes.
Under the lead of Worlds best Allrounder, Frédéric Caudron, Topteam s'Lands Welvaren managed to win both Baulkline matches easily; Ian van Krieken played a kind of exhibition match by crushing Henri Tilleman 200-3(2). Ian, who's taking turns with Peter de Bree by playing Baulkine 47/2 for the team, has the ability to perform on a very high level at an unexpected moment. Frédéric Caudron saw Patrick Niessen making a huge mistake in the beginning of their game and it turned out to be a very painful one for Niessen; Caudron, hardly playing any Baulkline at the moment, needed 30 minutes to collect 150 points and he forced the 1-Cushion match to be a formality. Despites Jean-Paul de Bruijn's victory over Ad Koorevaar in 9 innings, the teampoints were already given to the team from Kwadendamme anyway.
So, after re-shuffling the cards again there were a few options left ; Topteam 's Lands Welvaren closed the gap in the ranking or if YEL could win their last match ; there were no changes at all !!! Raymund Swertz showed his homecrowd how much he improved his game the last couple of years, even with the pressure that winning was absolutely necessary.....he defeated his friend Ian van Krieken in 3 innings. At the same time part 2 of the ''Caudron Show'' had started, it was the same story ; by making point after point the Baulkline game looked unbelievable easy. The audience (roundabout 100 people) got what they expected to get...something spectacular. Luckily for YEL Fabian Blondeel showed his famous German fighting spirit by winning the final 1-Cushion match in only 6 innings, giving Ad Koorevaar not a single chance.
De Pelikaan and Buiting Staalconstructie did a good job by winning both their teammatches, they closed down the gap with the 3 leaders by two points. Again no points for team ''de Wellse Vaert'' , their problems are getting more serious every round. Even the 1-inning Baulkline game of Rene Luijsterburg did not influence the teamresult....it's a pity.
Most Valuable Players during the competition are Raymund Swertz (undefetead and averaging 50.00 moyenne Baulkline 47/2), Frédéric Caudron (undefeated and averaging 100.00 moyenne Baulkline 71/2 after 4 matches) and Jean-Paul de Bruijn (undefeated and averaging 12.00 moyenne 1-Cushion)
Next round will be played the 27th of November