3-Cushion
OOSTERHOUT/APELDOORN -
The Dutch 3-cushion league had its first day of the new season, with 26 Dutch players, 11 Belgians, 6 Germans, 6 Turks and two Frenchmen in the arena. First blood was mostly drawn by the teams from the east, with Bousema Lochem being the only win with a clean sweep: 8-0. After a season of fighting off relegation, that's surely a relief.
Dinand Prinsen coached his team to a nice 6-2 win over Dallinga, in faraway Sluiskil. A1 Biljarts opened with a surprise victory, and the guys from the Hague and their supporters brought home a neat 6-2 from the province of their sponsor.
The foreign fireworks came from Tayfun Tasdemir, the only player in the round to record 2.000 average, and Martin Horn, who used a single inning more. The most exciting finishes were found in the matches between Kurt Ceulemans and Dave Christiani (40-38) and Davy van Havere versus Raimond Burgman (also 40-38). The biggest margin was recorded by Stefan Galla in his win over Emilio Sciacca and Gerwin Valentijn against Kenny Miatton (40-20). Raymund Swertz against Patrick Vasseur played the longest match in this first round: 40-21 in 43 innings. The Bousema boys hit in the second session against MCR, when Martin Horn and Steffan Galla got the better of Thorsten Frings and Emilio Sciacca.
,,What a great start'', said team captain Ronny Hazenwinkel, all smiles, because he had to fight off relegation until the last round of last season. The other team from the East, Dinand Prinsen's squad, returned from Sluiskil with happy faces (after a 6-2 win). ,,We didn't steal that, just look at the matches we won.'' Dick Jaspers beat Frédéric Caudron 40-33 in 26, to win the first battle of the giants in this year's league. Steven van Acker prevented a painful 0-8 by getting the better of Anno de Kleine with two late runs of four and one of five.
Danny Molier's DPC, the all-foreign team, was the unexpected winner in this round. Birol Uymaz controlled Ronald Forthomme on the always tricky centre court of Zundert (40-36 in 24). Martin Spoormans (two runs of seven just before the break) and Richard Bitalis (40-33, the old maestro against young talent Raymon Groot), had set the tone. Peter Ceulemans had one of those "nothing went right after halftime" matches, and Barry van Beers could not prevent a loss all by himself.
It was the same thing for Tayfun Tasdemir, the best winner of the day, in the match between A1 and De Veemarkt. The newcomer could no longer win, because Ronny Lindemann (strong finsih), Martien van der Spoel and Kay de Zwart (sixteen open innings in the first 20 trips to the table, 11 winners in the final 5) had already secured the win for the home team.
Kurt Ceulemans and Jerry Hermans gave the camping team a flying start against L&B, on paper one of the title favorites. In the "Squirrel" headquarters Dave Christiani and John Tijssens were chased into the trees. Eddy Merckx (40-25 against Frans van Kuyk in 24) and Gerwin Valentijn (40-20 in 28 against Miatton) brought the match back to level.
The cleaning crew of SIS, with their mostly The Hague accents, turned on the hose in the second session against 't Hartje. In the first two matches, Raimond Burgman's handling of the broom was still a bit rusty, he lost to van Havere 40-38in 28. Jeffrey Jorissen was the best winner of the team, he used up 25 innings to get past Ad Koorevaar. Glenn Hofman made few mistakes in his win over Peter De Backer (40-28 in 27 and Jean van Erp sealed the deal when he edged past Savas Bulut with a closing run of four.
Five teams share the lead after the first round: Bousema Lochem, SIS Schoonmaak, HCR Prinsen, A1 Biljarts and DPC. It's a prelude to two top confrontations in round two: SIS-A1 Biljarts and HCR Prinsen-DPC.