3-Cushion
DEN HAAG - The billiard arena in The Hague had no trouble switching from the top match between SIS Schoonmaak and HCR Prinsen (4-4) to the decisive encounter in Dutch football between PSV and Ajax on TV. The seperate smokers room, mostly filled with Jean van Erp supporters from Brabant, had already sung 'Brabantse nachten zijn lang' several times. Contrary to the football, the billiards confrontation had no winner. The home team of Cor Trampe and the visitors of Dinand Prinsen both had to settle for 4-4. Both camps had the same comment: "We had hoped for more."
Things could have been so different, if Glenn Hofman had not produced that glorious run of 8 to finish against Dick Jaspers, or if Raimond Burgman had equalized with 6 against Anno de Kleine. In the end, neither team got to that dreamed 6-2 and the result was a hard fought 4-4. It means that SIS holds on tot he lead by a point (31), Prinsen following on 30, and both are safely into the play-off's. Team Eekhoorn was the only true winner of the round, they now occupy third place, nine points behind the leader.
It was an oft-repeated commented on this Sunday afternoon in Henk Jorissen's billiard room: ,,It should be so busy every week, with an atmosphere like this." And: ,,What a great sport billiards is, if you have a crowd like this.'' The entrance of the players, with walk-on ladies, the thunderous applause for difficult points, the singing and the honking of horns, it all created a special ambiance. Eddy Leppens, the Belgian who won his match for Prinsen against Jean van Erp, later said: ,,Who can still say that you need quiet during billiard matches? Thanks to this audience, it was fantastic, keep it up.''
It had been announced: Jorissen's would be a cauldron with 150 people in the stands. And that's how the Sunday afternoon turned out. The spectators were treated to lots of excitement and emotion, for instance in the matches between Glenn Hofman and Dick Jaspers, and Raimond Burgman against Anno de Kleine. From 2-2 at halftime, those two encounters were to be decisive. Jeffrey Jorissen had a rocket start against Raimund Swertz (7 and 9 in the first two innings), and he had no trouble consolidating to 40-24 in 22. Eddy Leppens needed more time to get into the groove, got ahead in the tenth inning (18-11), then ran a 10 in the 18th inning which got the job done: 40-26 in 22.
The predictions at halftime were as follows: Jaspers will beat Hofman, Burgman will beat de Kleine, 4-4. How different things turned out. Hofman, thanks to a 4-5-4 streak had built up a 25-13 lead over Jaspers. Burgman had roughly the same advantage over de Kleine (23-12). Team manager Cor Trampe could barely control his nerves and walked out for some air. "This means nothing, he said to his own supporters. All sorts of things can still happen. "
Glenn Hofman later said: ,,I knew I had not beaten Dick yet.'' The Dutch champion made a comeback and after a run of 7 even had the lead: 35-32. It was in that same, crucial inning that Glenn Hofman found the best inside of him. Cheered on by the fans he scored and kept scoring until he had ran 8 and out (40-35 in 20). The applause was thunderous, but there was still concern over the adjacent table. Raimond Burgman had lost his lead and a strong Anno de Kleine had turned 24-31 into 38-34. In the 25th inning, de Kleine finished and Burgman still needed 6 for his team to win the match 5-3. He came up three points short: 40-37.
,,We can live with that'', said Carl Verhoeven, the main sponsor of the team from The Hague. He loves his first year with this team, and looks forward to winning the title.
Dinand Prinsen is honest: ,,I am no fan of the play-off's at all, so I would have loved to win here today. It will be difficult to end in 1st place after the regular rounds now. We have a tough double weekend ahead, againsy Eekhoorn and Bousema.''
The competition was indifferent to the draw at the top. The only real progress was made by Eekhoorn after their 8-0 win over Dallinga, with Frans van Kuyk as the best player: 40-22 in 18 against Jean Paul de Bruijn. The team from Zeeland looks tob e out of the race fort he play-off's now. Three of their four players were well below 1 average today.
Murat Naci Coklu and Roland Forthomme played an exciting match, as Bousema met Zundert. The Turkish maestro ran a 13 in the 2nd inning, made it 20-7 after 4 and 31-14 after 9. Five innings later, Forthomme had produced 13, 0, 6, 0 and 7 to finish, which left Coklu with six to make in the equalizer. He got as far as three: 40-37 in 14, the best match of the round.
L&B Ledermode got beaten by A1 Biljarts (6-2), after Javier Palazón won his (not very good) thriller against Eddy Merckx 40-39 in 41. Ronny Lindemann and Martien van der Spoel for A1 were good winners in 19 innings. Dave Christiani beat Christian Rudolph 40-18 in 36.
DPC, in a weakened line-up, drew against De Veemarkt, without any player excelling: all matches over 30 innings. Rene Dericks comfortably got past Danny Molier (40-17 in 31).
't Hartje/Van Wanrooy does whatever it can tos teer clear of the bottom two positions. Their home match against the already relagated MCR was won 8-0. Savas Bulut was the best winner against Thorsten Frings: 40-34 in 22.
The current table, with three rounds stil lto play:
1 SIS Schoonmaak 31 points
2 HCR Prinsen 30
3 Team Eekhoorn 22
4 DPC 21
5 L&B Ledermode 20
6 STZ Zunder 19
7 Dallinga.com 19
8 A1 Biljarts 18
9 Bousema Lochem 17
10 't Hartje 16
11 De Veemarkt 12
12 MCR 3.
