Balk-Line 47/2
HAARLO - The Limburg billiard player Raymund Swertz still has a preference for the classic game types and underlined that with a new national title in the balkline 47/2. The champion in one of his specialties, for the 13th time in his career, sounded the alarm bell during the ceremony at Hotel/Café Prinsen. The 31-year-old master in the classical games said in his speech: '' The game is so beautiful that we must make an effort to keep it for the future."
The signal is already that the main talent from the last few years, young Sam van Etten, was not among the players in this weekend's titlerace. He now seems to focus mainly on three cushion. Raymund Swertz has to make his switch as well, but is still willing to play in weekends without three cushion matches. ''I really hope that our federation shares the concern of the young players. We can think about other playing schedules, but most of all, try to make a financial injection. That seems to be the only way to keep the talents on board. We must know that, if that doesn't work out, we will lose these wonderful disciplines of billiards in a few years.''
Raymund Swertz defeated veteran Jos Bongers in the deciding game of the 47/2 championship: 250-6 in one inning. The 63-year-old player from Nijmegen, recently father-in-law of three-cushion player Jeffrey Jorissen, was on stage with two younger players. Raymund Swertz took the title with 69,44 on average ahead of Bongers with 36,96 and Gert-Jan Veldhuizen with 47.79.
The championship, with eight players in two groups, followed by a winner group, was played at Swertz' 'home location in Haarlo.
The podium was completed by Martijn Egbers as number four.
The matches in the winners group:
Raymund Swertz-Gert-Jan Veldhuizen 250-250 (4)
Jos Bongers-Martijn Egbers 250-151 (2)
2nd round:
Raymund Swertz-Martijn Egbers 250-182 (7)
Gert-Jan Veldhuizen-Jos Bongers 147-250 (10)
3rd round:
Raymund Swertz-Jos Bongers 250-6 (1)
Gert-Jan Veldhuizen-Martijn Egbers 250-72 (3)
The final ranking at the Dutch championship 47/2:
1 Raymund Swertz 69,44-250
2 Jos Bongers 36,96-235
3 Gert-Jan Veldhuizen 47,79-250
4 Martijn Egberts 28,28-131
5 Dennis Timmers 31,11-127
6 Mischa van Bochem 20,60-119
7 Michel van Silfhout 28,69-91
8 Wiel van Gemert 18,61-139