3-Cushion
ZUNDERT – The leader in the Dutch premier league has only enjoyed its undefeated position for a day. Yesterday they beat Dallinga 6-2, today STZ were defeated by the same score by Holland Mineraal. MCR/De Uitspanning is the new leader, Eekhoorn and Zundert are one point down. Barry van Beers, the only Zundert player to lose in the early rounds, now was the only one to win, recording a 50-34 (38) against Therese Klompenhouwer. Murat Naci Coklu, Stefan Galla and Stefan Spilleman were merciless guests in Den Hoek and brought the home team back on planet earth. The Turkish captain showed his class against Roland Forthomme (50-34 in 23) who had a weekend without a win.
MCR/De Uitspanning made good use of this misstep. They drew yesterday (4-4 against A1) but today they beat De Distel and regained the top spot. Eddy Leppens could not contain Gerwin Valentijn (50-44 in 34), but his teammates Dave Christiani (50-38 v. Philipoom in 31), Torsten Frings (50-41 in 34 v.Tijssens) and Sander Jonen (50-10 v. Van der Wurf in 50!) protected their lead player.
A1 Biljarts dealt easily with Post Luchtkanalen, thanks to excellent wins by Eddy Merckx and Raimond Burgman, both in 21 innings, defeating Davy van Havere (50-27) and Kay de Zwart (50-34). Addy Wienk had a strong start which he used to beat Marc Celen. The fourth winner for A1 was Martien van der Spoel against Henk Habraken.
Holland Mineraal and Eekhoorn got maximum points out of the double weekend. The weak start to the season is forgotten for Holland Mineraal, after the wins over VDO and STZ.. The ambitious Eekhoorn formation, with a nice three-year plan for these players, shows up with guts, high on the ranking. On Saturday they beat Buffalo, which is a competitor for one of the play-off spots, by 6 pts to 2. Today, they reached the same score against VDO, thanks to wins by Frans van Kuyk, Kurt Ceulemans and Kenny Miatton, who is new to the premier league but makes a good impression so far.
Holland Mineraal/Bousema also won on Saturday and keeps up the winning spirit. In front of their home crowd, they polished off DVO 8-0. ,,We could not have had a better weekend’’, said team captain Ronny Hazewinkel. ,,It was just too bad that Therese was not as good on Sunday as she was on Saturday.’’ Klompenhouwer kept up with her one-time practice partner Barry van Beers for a while, but he had the better finish: 50-34 in 38.
Murat Naci Coklu looked formidable against Roland Forthomme and Stefan Galla used only six innings for his last 25 points against Peter Ceulemans.
Buffalo.nl ended a somewhat lesser period by beating HCR Prinsen 5-3. Jeffrey Jorissen and Jelle Pijl played a draw, Herman van Daalen got the better of Michel van Silfhout. The match points were secured for the home team by Jean van Erp, who defeated Anno de Kleine 50-38. Dick Jaspers and Glenn Hofman were neck and neck until it was 38-38 (26), but Jaspers still had run of eight and a run of four in his cue, and Hofman had to concede (50-39).
’t Hartje/Van Wanrooy en Dallinga.com, two teams in the low end of the table, shared the points. Dallinga could not complain about that, because Frédéric Caudron needed his equalizing inning to keep up with Ad Broeders. The Belgian missed, got a kiss and made his two anyway. The little run saved a match point for Dallinga, with Steven van Acker as the only winner (50-34 v. Frank Martens). Patrick Vasseur and Wim van Cromvoirt drew (50-50 in 47). Jean Paul de Bruijn could not win this weekend: he lost to Peter Ceulemans on Saturday and on Sunday had no chance against Ad Koorevaar: 50-25 in 26.
Ad Koorevaar, strong performance with win over Jean Paul de Bruijn
Raimond Burgman in a main role with A1 Biljarts