3-Cushion
ZUNDERT - The victory was for the reigning champion, but Christian Rudolph started with a stunt against Dick Jaspers. The German player of Twentevisie, who was some weeks out due to a hernia, defeated on the first day of the Dutch cupfinal in Den Hoek in Zundert Dick Jaspers 2-1. Twentevisie nevertheless lost 6-2 against the champion and cup holder Van Donge en De Roo. Jean van Erp beat in the other matches Stefan Lenting, Torbjörn Blomdahl defeated Anno de Kleine 3-0 and Martin Horn took the maximal score against Dave van Geel.
Dick Jaspers was the news of the day in Zundert, not only due to his loss. The Dutch world number one didn't play for a couple of years in Belgium, he will return there next season. He's the substitute for Eddy Merckx in the team of the champion BC Deurne. Steven van Acker is transferred too, he will be second man in BC Deurne. Eddy Merckx will play for BC Quality Zele next year. For the other two places in the team of BC Deurne Davy van Havere, Ludo Dielis and Therese Klompenhouwer are available.
Crystal Kelly and Snellen Recycling made a good start yesterday in the cupfinal. They didn't spoil any victory point. Both teams are in the lead in the B-group with two points and eight match points. Crystal Kelly defeated Emar Logistics, including a flawless playing Raimond Burgman (3.000 average against Jack Wijnen) and an very strong playing Raimond Ceulemans against Ad Brothers with a run of 13. Frédéric Caudron devoured his compatriot Francis Forton 3-0, Frans van Kuik lost one set against Frank Martens.
The team of Snellen Recycling, playing for his own home crowd, also had a promising start against DBL Holland. Roland Forthomme needed all his class to stop Murat Naci Coklu, who with a run of eleven and an average of 1.523 was a tough opponent. Forthomme won 2-1. Harry van de Ven and Peter Ceulemans wasted one set against Stefan Spilleman and Stefan Galla but took the overall win. Barry Beers showed his supremacy against Jelle Pijl with 3-0, averaging 1.667.
The other group (Poule A) seems to go to a thrilling climax. Van Donge en De Roo is leading, the numbers two and three, Delta and Dekker Keukens, played a draw against each other last night (4-4). The team from Sluiskil is second on the ranking, because the four players collected more caroms than the opponent.
Jef Philipoom excelled in the team of Dekker with a 3-0 victory over Eddy Leppens and 1.730 average. John Tijssens defeated Peter de Backer 2-1, but Jean Paul de Bruijn (2-1 against Gerwin Valentijn) and Glenn Hofmann (3-0 against Hans van der Wurf) kept the team of Delta in the race.
The matches can be seen live on Kozoom every day for the holders of a Premium pass.