Dutch league begins with second round

The champion and cup holder, the team of Van Donge and De Roo, is leading the Dutch league after eleven rounds. The second round starts this Sunday for another course of eleven playing days. Frédéric Caudron with an average of 1.897 was the best player in the first half of the competition, before Dick Jaspers with 1.873, Martin Horn 1.778, Eddy Merckx 1.760 and Torbjörn Blomdhl 1.705 average.

The teams of De Vrachtkar and Verbrugge Hyunday are threatened with degradation.

The top four will meet each others at the end for the playoffs to determine the champion. Those four places are occupied now by Van Donge and De Roo, Crystal Kelly, Snellen Recycling and TOVV.NL / MCR.

Three of the four players in the team of Van Donge and De Roo are in the top five of the best players in the first round. Only Caudron has performed better. The Belgian is the leader in the team of Crystal Kelly, which is in second place and stops as a sponsor after this season end. Frédéric Caudron, Raimond Burgman, Frans van Kuik and Raymond Ceulemans therefore must look for another sponsor.

The second round of the league starts on Sunday with the derby between Delta Fast and Verbrugge in Sluiskil. For the team of Delta it will be an important second half. Meerten Dallinga, the president of the Sluiskil teams, said at the start of the season that the main team would start with championship aspirations, but Delta so far is outside the top five, especially because Eddy Leppens and Jean Paul de Bruijn play below the expectations.

Snellen Recycling is the revelation of this year, with a strong Roland Forthomme as leader and Peter Ceulemans, Barry van Beers and Harrie van der Ven as great playing numbers two, three and four.

The top of the individual ranking halfway:

1 Caudron 1.897, 2 Jaspers 1.873, 3 Horn 1.778, 4 Merckx 1.760, 5 Blomdahl 1.705, 6 Forthomme 1.634, 7 Philipoom 1.590, 8 Coklu 1.543, 9 Valentijn 1.532, 10 Van Kuik 1.474, 11 Van Erp 1.446, 12 Loncelle 1.409, 13 Van Beers 1.381, 14 Peter Ceulemans 1.380, 15 De Jaeger 1.377, 16 Nilsson 1.370, 17 Hofman 1.354, 18 De Bruijn 1.335, 19 Galla 1.334, 20 Forton 1.331.