3-Cushion
UTRECHT – The recent past had not been easy: Peter Ceulemans lost a good friend to lung cancer, and there is another disease in the family. But inbetween, there was that beautiful, unforgettable moment in Peter and Bettina’s life: the birth of their son Jack last month.
,,I’ve had tough weeks, and I was frankly not quite ready for the Superprestige in Lommel'', said the young father, who played a super match in the Dutch league today.
,,Now that our son is born, I am doing much better. We are on cloud nine, we are a happy family, even though Bettina’s dad’s condition keeps us worried.''
His form on the table also seems to be back, as he demonstrated today against John Tijssens. Thanks mostly to a super run of 20, it was one of the most memorable matches in his career.
The facts: Peter Ceulemans from Snellen Recycling played a wonderful match against John Tyssens, in their away game with Dekker Keukens. The Belgian won 50-12 in 19 innings. Even more impressive than the average, was the run of 20 in the third inning.
Ceulemans: ,,John missed the break, I made 3, 1 and then 20, making it 24 – 0 in three innings. That was my career high run, I had sof ar made 18 twice, once against Frans van Kuijk last year, and in the Superprestige a few years ago against Eddy Merckx. Oddly enough, I lost both those matches. Today had a happier ending.''
The story of that run of 20: ,,I made 2 or 3 difficult shots early on, hitting the third ball as it was close to the cushion. From there on, it started to march and I could play position, especially because I often hit the third ball on the advantageous side.'' Ceulemans closed out with 5, 5 and 4 in the final innings.
His victory did not bring full points to Snellen. The meeting ended in 4 – 4, because Gerwin Valentijn beat Roland Forthomme with a margin (50-37 in 38) and Jef Philipoom had almost the same result against Barry van Beers, 50-36 in 31 innings. Harrie van de Ven brought 2 points home for Snellen, by beating Hans van der Wurf (50-31 in 48).
The team from Brabant, starting the season on an ambitious note, are still lower on the list than they should be. Ceulemans: ,,We wil have to perform better as a team, but that will not be easy in the upcoming weeks, when we play the champion (A1 Biljarts) and then Frans Bevers.''
Frans Bevers remains the unbeaten leader aftera n 8 – 0 against the weak team of Luchtkanalen. The “Zeeuwen” played without Frédéric Caudron, who was active in Germany, but in spite of that they weren ever in any danger. Eddy Leppens and Jean Paul de Bruijn were the best players with 30 and 31 inning matches. Glenn Hofman had 40 points in 20 innings, but needed 18 more innings to close out the match.
TOVV.nl/MCR was more impressive, with an 8 – 0 victory over A1 Biljarts. Eddy Merckx shone against Dion Nelin in 23 innings (50-26) and a high run of 14. Frans van Kuijk dominated against Michael Nilsson (50-26), Dave Chrstiani had the winning endrush against (run of 10) against Raimond Burgman (50-46 in 30) and Richard Bitalis had no problems against Addy Wienk.
Van de Broek/Hanbat is the surprising nr. 3 on the ranking, sharing that position with A1 Biljarts.
The team from Amsterdam beat Holland Mineraal 6-2, thanks to an excellent Frans van Schaik who beat Stefan Galla 50-28 in 27 innings. Dick van Uum edged out Anno de Kleine (50-49), in a match that took 56 nervous innings.
The “Zeeuwse” derby between 's Lands Welvaren/Iets Anders and Martens Cleaning ended in a draw: 4-4. The most exciting match was between team leaders Francis Forton and Martin Spoormans, ending 50-49 to Spoormans. Henk Habraken and Jean van Erp, two buddies from Brabant, played a similar thriller, won by Habraken on a single point.