3-Cushion
HAARLO - The victories of Nikos Polychronopoulos, Anno de Kleine and Frans van Kuyk may have been beautiful... but on this historic Sunday, they were completely overshadowed by Dick Jaspers' new world record, set in the German Bundesliga.The Dutchman's march of triumph (40 in 4, 10.000 average) was the talk of the afternoon, in every Ducth billiard room. The upside for Dick's team (HCR Prinsen), is that he will play in almost the remaining matches, in the Netherlands.
Table leaders SIS Schoonmaak from The Hague won another point on two chasing teams: HCR Prinsen and DPC drew 4-4 in Haarlo. Anno de Kleine was 'player of the day' when he beat Birol Uymaz: 40-24 in 14 innings (high run 9). Raymund Swertz brought his "Masters" form and walked all over Richard Bitalis: 40-16 in 24. For DPC, Nikos Polycyronopoulos against Eddy Leppens (40-27 in 16) and Jérôme Barbeillon against Jelle Pijl (40-29 in 30) were the winners.
The Prinsen team had to do without Jaspers, but he will again lead them in the remainder of the season. Dinand Prinsen: ,,We are not certain of the play-offs, and we don't know the dates yet. But I will certainly try to play both Jaspers and Leppens towards the end of the race.''
The lead is even firmer in the hands of SIS Schoonmaak after this round. The team from The Hague was never in trouble against A1 Biljarts, and the maximum score was the result. Glenn Hofman beat Christian Rudolph 40-20 in 18, which made him the best player of that match. Jean van Erp and Jeffrey Jorissen used up 37 innings, Raimond Burgman (against Kay de Zwart) needed 27: 40-30.
Three of the six encounters of this Sunday ended in a draw. L&B Ledermode and STZ Zundert played a Brabant derby without a winner. The Belgian clash on board one was won by Roland Forthomme, who stayed ahead of Eddy Merckx, 40-36 in 21. Barry van Beers was on song as well, he beat Dave Christiani 40-32 in 22. Gerwin Valentijn and John Tijssens, using 32 and 35 innings respectively, made it 4-4.
Dallinga.com also brought home a single point, when it played De Veemarkt. Dieter Grossjung was an important player for the guests, because he edged Steven van Acker: 40-39 in 30. Jean Paul de Bruijn, replacing Caudron (Bundesliga) as lead player, got past Huub Wilkowski by a small margin (40-36 in 34). Dirk Weeremans won for De Veemarkt with a late and decisive run of seven. Jean Paul de Kraker played a weird match for Dallinga as substitute: he started with seven open innings to set him back 0-10, but he still managed to beat Adrie Demming in the end, 40-37 in 49.
Bousema Lochem won valuable points in their away game against 't Hartje/Van Wanrooy: 6-2. Stefan Galla was the best player when he beat Hakan Incekara (40-22 in 18). Murat Naci Coklu got the better of Peter De Backer, 40-32 in 27. Davy van Havere won the Belgian clash against Wesley de Jaeger: 40-30 in 25. Team Eekhoorn was much too strong for red lantern MCR, with lead player Frans van Kuyk shining in his win over Emilio Sciacca: 40-15 in 19.
The top of the table:
1 SIS Schoonmaak 13-23
2 HCR Prinsen 13-20
3 A1 Biljarts 13-15
4 DPC 13-15