3-Cushion
DÜSSELDORF - The World Cup winner and the World champion have given the last weekend before the halfway point in the German Bundesliga a gold ribbon. Torbjörn Blomdahl won his two matches for Bergisch Gladbach in the top league, 40 points in just 16 and 9 innings.
Frédéric Caudron, playing for BC Elversberg in the second division, beat Marco Zanetti on saturday: 40-24 in 16 beurten (2.500/1.500) and Alfonso Legazpi on sunday: 40-16 in 13 innings. His team leads the table in one of the two flights, ahead of Zanetti's Munich. Marco Zanetti took his revenge one day later in a magnificent match against Jérôme Barbeillon, which he won in only fifteen innings.
BCC Witten is now the winter champion: they beat Velbert on saturday by 6-2, when only Eddy Merckx denied Eddy Leppens: 40-33 in 15 (2.667/2.200). Stefan Galla, Volker Baten and Kersten Reinartz won for Witten.
On sunday, Witten drew with Bergisch Gladbacher. The two top matches were won by Bergisch. Torbjörn Blomdahl produced the weekend's highlight with a 40-24 winin 9 innings, against Eddy Leppens (4.444/2.667). Bergisch Gladbacher had a team average of 1.438, with 1.295 for BCC Witten.
Martin Horn beat Stefan Galla 40-32 in 26 innings, but BCC Witten's Volker Baten (40-39 against Markus Dömer) and Kersten Reinartz (40-32 against Thomas Horcher) evened the score. Bergisch Gladbacher beat GT Buer on saturday by 6-2, thanks to wins of Torbjörn Blomdahl over Jens Eggers (40-11 in 16) and Martin Horn over Markus Galla (40-25 in 22).
BC Magdeburg, low on the table, recorded a nice 6-2 victory over Neustadt, Dick Jaspers beating Jorg Ikenmeyer (40-12 in 20) and Markus Schönhoff beating Torsten Lechelt (40-20 in 19). Bottroper BA beat BSV München 5-3 in a match that saw Christoph Rudolph draw against Michael Puse in 31 innings.
GT Buer lost not only to Bergisch Gladbacher, BSV Velbert was too strong also (6-2) for the highly ranked team. Henk Habraken shone with a 40-16 in 20 win over Jens Eggers. Thorsten Anders and Dieter Grossjung also won for Velbert.
The top ten of matches in the bundesliga this weekend:
1. Torbjörn Blomdahl 40 in 9 (4,444)
2. Frederic Caudron 40 in 13 (3,077) 2.Bundesliga BC Elversberg
3. Eddy Merckx 40 in 15 (2,666)
Marco Zanetti 40 in 15 (2,666) 2.Bundesliga BC München
5. Torbjörn Blomdahl 40 in 16 (2,500)
Birol Uymaz 40 in 16 (2,500)
Frédéric Caudron 40 in 16 (2,500) 2.Bundesliga BC Elversberg
8. Markus Schönhoff 40 in 19 (2,105)
9. Dick Jaspers 40 in 20 (2,000)
Henk Habraken 40 in 20 (2,000)
The top of the table as the competition is halfway:
1 BCC Witten 9-14-1.235
2 Bergisch Gladbacher 9-14-1.219
3 GT Buer 9-10-1.038
4 Bfr Sterkrade 9-10-1.037
5 BSV Velberg 9-10-1.028
Bottroper en Ravensburger have eight points, Neustadt is last, with 4 points.