3-Cushion
MERKSEM - The champion team of BC Deurne has caught up with De Goeie Queue on top of the Belgian ranking, both with 18 points. The leader played a draw this week. The most important follower, De Ploeg, is just one point down. The heat is on in the title race.
Barry van Beers , who shone in the Dutch league last weekend with a run of 18, was the best player of the eleventh round with 50 points match in in only 15 innings (3.333) and a run of fourteen.
Martin Horn was not so far behind with 50 in 16 innings (3.125), his teammates Jef Philipoom (2.631) and Jean van Erp (2.210) shared in De Ploeg's overall performance with a 6-2 win over Op de Meir 1.
The level was very high as well in other teams: Dick Jaspers showed up with 2.500, Frédéric Caudron with 2.380, Henk Habraken 2.052 and Kortrijk player Martin Ravestyn surprised with an excellent game against Gerwin Valentijn: 50-34 in 25 innings.
The draw of De Goeie Queue in its away game against BC Herentals was the surprise of this match day. Frédéric Caudron and Peter Ceulemans won their matches for the frontrunner, Eddy Leppens and Michel van Camp lost to Dave Christiani and Geert Meylemans.
Eddy Leppens, who left for Barcelona today for an invitation tournament, had a remarkable week. The Belgian runner-up was recently undefeated in the Netherlands and Belgium and his form seemed untouchable.
On Saturday, Leppens lost two matches against Eddy Merckx and Torbjörn Blomdahl in Germany, with excellent averages. On Monday he could not find his rhythm and feeling in the duel with Dave Christiani, what resulted in his third loss in a row, this time 50-48 in 39 innings.
Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Ludo Dielis rubed some more salt in the wounds of one of the strongholds in the highest class: the team of Mr. 100 Lier. Deurne defeated the team with the maximum score (8-0), the team average was even more painful: Deurne 1.803, Mr. 100 Lier 0.960.
BC Biljart Express spoiled a precious point in Kortrijk, mainly due to the excellent performance of Martin Ravestyn.
De Witte Molen couldn't continue its succesful series against KBC Zanzibar, in a match with an incredibly exciting finish. Roland Forthomme and Kenny Miatton, key players of Zanzibar, got rid off a 4-0 backlog at the break and defeated Glenn Hoffman (50-49 in 33) and Francis Forton (50-49 in 46) by one point.
The ranking on top:
1 De Goeie Queue and BC Deurne, 18 points
3 De Ploeg, 17 points
4 De Witte Molen, 14 points
5 Zanzibar, 13 points
6 Biljart Express, 11
And at the bottom :
10 Op de Meir 2, 6 points
11 Kortrijk 5 points
12 Mr 100 Lier, 4 points.