3-Cushion
LIER - The best run in the Belgian league for teams is made by Peter Ceulemans this week. On the eighth match day, in the arena of Mr. 100 in Lier, the home team leader defeated the German Martin Horn 50-45 in 25 innings. The victory came in sight when the Belgian was trailing 29-20 in the sixteenth inning. Ceulemans got his wings, surpassed his opponent and left him behind with a wonderful run of 19. Mr 100 finished it off perfectly defeated BC Herentals 8-0.
The win felt even better for Peter Ceulemans because he also beat Martin Horn one day earlier in the Dutch league. ,,That's better than the high run, winning twice in two days against one of the top players'', Ceulemans admitted after the match. The Belgian, in his best period of the season, pulled the trigger of his double-barreled gun in front of his home crowd. ,,I know that form is relative, but I certainly can enjoy it'', said the Mr 100 leader. That run is not my best that I ever made. I already scored a 20-run in the Dutch league.'' Peter Ceulemans also spoke about his plans for next year. ,,I'm going to play some World Cups again, but not too far from home. Of course in Blankenberge and I intend also to play in Porto and La Baule.''
Mister 100 climbed to second place on the ranking behind BC Deurne. De Goeie Queue, that caught up with a win against Eeklose on Tuesday (8-0), has the same matchpoints as Mr. 100. For the Ceulemns team were Kurt against Christian Rudolph (50-45 in 28), Raymond against Leon Smolders (42-32 in 32) and Bart against Geert Meylemans (42-35 in 34) the other gold diggers.
BC Deurne unexpectedly ran into a half knockout in the home match against BC Quality from Zele. The maximum score seemed to be for grabs, after Jean van Erp had put a 4-0 lead on the score board against his Dutch teammate Jeffrey Jorissen (42-34 in 33) and Davy van Havere against Freddy van Kerckhove (42-21 in 31). Torbjörn Blomdahl and Jef Philipoom then had to finish it off against Eddy Merckx and Peter De Backer. That mission failed: Jef Philipoom suffered his first loss in eight rounds (50-45 in 28) and Blomdahl was beaten by the extremely solid Merckx: 50-44 in 27.
The best team average of the match day was recorded by Mister 100 (1.546) ahead of Deurne (1.453) and Biljart Express (1.415). The Express team, rather steady in the top five, didn't feel any opposition from Mister 100 2 (8-0), although Ad Koorevaar was not so bad against Gerwin Valentijn (50-40 in 33). Frans van Kuyk was the best winner for his team against Marco Janssen in 29 innings (50-20). Frédéric Caudron was the best winner for De Goeie Queue: 50-15 in 20 tegen Leslie Menheer.
The Mambo boys from Kortrijk sent Zanzibar back home with a hefty punishing: 8-0. That was a hard punch for the team of Roland Forthomme, which usually belongs to the top teams, but now has dropped to a tenth place in the ranking. Forthomme himself lost without chances against Dave Christiani (50-35 in 32), Ronny Brants defeated Kenny Miatton 50-44 in 41. The men on three and four started with a 4-0 lead: Martin Ravestyn had a better final shot than Andy de Bondt (42-35 in 27), Jimmy Mues had a total off-day against Frédéric Beghin (42-19 in 41). Andy de Bondt was the best man for Zanzibar with 1.296, but Christiani (1.562) and Ravestyn (1.555) were the best of the evening.
The ranking on top after Monday:
1 BC Deurne 8-14
2 Mister 100 Lier 8-12
3 Biljart Express 8-11
4 Quality Zele 8-11
5 De Goeie Queue 7-10.
Ronny Brants, victory over Kenny Miatton, 8-0 win for his team Kortrijk