3-Cushion
,,You can not be every day in top form'', Dick Jaspers said this afternoon, shortly after a brilliant match against Henk Habraken, in which he finished with a run of nine. But under the scoreboard in the Sluiskil arena, with a score of 50-25 in only fifteen innings (average 3.333), he said at the same time: "Yesterday I also played well in Germany, a win with an average of 2,500.''
Two days in top form, two days on a very high level, with in the match today between Verbrugge Hyunday and Van Donge en De Roo (ended in a 8-0 victory for the champion) even the best match of all nine rounds of the first division so far.
The Dutch number one of the world was extremely happy after the match and also showed his realism. ,,The World championship here in Sluiskil'', he said, ,,was one of my big goals this year, but you see that such a tournament is a lottery with so many top players. The level at the top is high, the difference between the top players is very small. Dani Sánchez is obviously a great champion, but he needed a bit of luck to reach the final.''
With his team, the champion and leader of the Premiership, Dick Jaspers won this afternoon with a generous score. The home team of Verbrugge played with two guest players. Therese Klompenhouwer, who played one day before a match over one average in Germany, didn't have any chance against Jean van Erp, Raymund Swertz lost to Ad Koorevaar, who made a run of ten.
The match of Jaspers, viewed by far too few spectators, was the highlight of the afternoon. When the score was 6-0 for the champion, there was a small sensation in the air. Kees Wittens, on his birthday, rose above himself and Martin Horn. He played a long time over two average, but was felled by stress in the end and lost 50-46.
Crystal Kelly remained on two points of the leader after a 6-2 victory over Elmar Logistics. Frédéric Caudron glittered in his confrontation with countryman Francis Forton with 50-31 in 19 innings. Frans van Kuijk, against Frank Martens, was the only loser in the team.
Eddy Merckx returned from the qualification in the Agipi tournament and showed his very good form against Johan Loncelle (50-38 in 24). TOVV, Merckx's team, defeated De Vrachtkar: 8-0.
A1 Billiarts and Dekker Keukens played 4-4. Jef Philipoom won after a close finish with Michael Nilsson: 50-49 in 33 innings.
Delta against Twentevisie, in the sparkling billiardroom of the Grolsch Veste, also ended up in a final score of 4-4 with two mutual draws. Eddy Leppens shared the points with Christian Rudolph, Jean Paul de Bruijn, did the same, despite a run of sixteen, the highes in the competition until now, with Anno de Kleine. Peter de Backer, with a run of thirteen, played a great match against Dave van Geel. Michael Nilsson had a twelve, Addie Wienk a run of eleven in their matches.