3-Cushion
BOTTROP - The double weekend in the German league has turned the positions on top of the ranking upside down. BC Witten lost his first place in the match against Horster Eck on Saturday. The champions team showed himself a bridge too far: 8-0. Torbjörn Blomdahl showed his class as the front man: the Swedish beat Eddy Leppens, the Belgian was out of contention to win: 50-24 in 26 innings.
Martin Horn clinched the win in his duel with Stefan Galla 50-41 (25), Thorsten Frings excelled against Ronny Lindemann and Mark Dömer also shared in the team-performance: he defeated Volker Baten. The team performance was from a high level: Blomdahl won in 26 innings, Horn, Frings and Dömer in 25 innings.
BA Bottroper is the new leader, gathering eighteen points in twelve matches. The gap with BC Witten is one point, with Horster Eck, the multiple champion, two points.
Chritian Rudolph shone for Bottroper: on Saturday vs. Inwon Kang (37 innings), on Sunday against Johann Schirmbrand in 22 innings. Nonetheless it was not the best game of the weekend. Dion Nelin marked two excellent matches with high averages for BC Magdeburg, on Saturday against Jean van Erp in 20 innings (50-28), on Sunday vs. Henk Habraken (50-42 in 27).
The Belgian grandmaster Eddy Merckx also did a good job in his duel with Peter Ceulemans, keeping his best guns for the final of the match: 50-27 in 23. His team, BSG Duisburg defeated BC Elversberg 6-2.
The tension on top is growing, but also in the lower regions: three teams, Fehrbach, Magdeburg and Velbert, have gathered eight points now and have started the battle to extend the stay in the bundesliga.