3-Cushion
OOSTERHOUT - The lead in the table is safe, after Eureka Billird's win in the 19th round of the Buffalo league. The battle for the other two play-off spots however, only intensifies. Medisch Centrum Breda lost costly points in The Hague (6-2 to the hosts), Dallinga.com got steamrolled by the threee Turks of 't Hartje (8-0), the teams that benefitted were A1 Biljarts, HCR Prinsen and TOVV/Royal Pro.
The joy over Jean Paul de Bruijn's GP win in Vlaardingen colored the trip to Oosterhout, for the difficult away game against 't Hartje/Van Wanrooy. The festive mood was gone at halftime, with a 4-0 backlog after Hakan Incekara had beaten Bart Ceulemans and van Havere got past Dallinga. In the second session, two other Turks were judge and jury for the team from Zeeland. Tayfun Tasdemir beat JP de Bruijn 40-18 in 13, Bulut cruised past Steven van Acker 40-16 in 17. Chance of a snowflake in hell for the Dallinga team, but to give credit where it's due: the 1.927 was the best team averag ever played by 't Hartje.
Tayfun Tasdemir in his comment: ,,The start was actually pretty poor, with 11 points in 9 innings. Then I started to get into it, ran ten, ten, seven and two. I made 29 in the last 4 innings.'' Savas Bulut ran away with an eleven, and never saw van Acker again, except in his rear view mirror.
Medisch Centrum Breda had a horrible start in their away match against Buffalo.nl. Herman van Daalen and Jeffrey Jorissen both took an instant lead against Raymon Groot (40-22 in 41) and Barry van Beers (40-27 in 32). The second session also looked to go Buffalo's way: Hofman had a 26-12 lead against Forthomme after 12 innings, Jean van Erp was ahead against Peter Ceulemans, at 24-9 in 12. Forthomme could turn matters around, he eventually won 40-35 in 23. It was for statistics only, because Jean van Erp won his match against Ceulemans 40-31 in 24.
Eureka Billard had to dig deep to fight off Bousema Lochem. The crux was at centrecourt, where Dave Christiani was excellent, both in offense and defense, to beat Murat Naci Coklu. Eeven though Eddy Leppens on the other table beat Raimond Burgman (40-38 in 23), Christiani could secure full points. The player fromLimburg brought home the bacon: 40-33 in 21.
HCR Prinsen kept their place at arm's length of the leaders with a 6-2 win over Team Eekhoorn. Dick Jaspers, who suffered a surprise loss in the Vlaardingen GP on Friday, was out to regroup and played a fantastic match against Frans van Kuyk: 40-31 in 13. Jelle Pijl, in the second session, also looked on fire when he defeated Kurt Ceulemans 40-26 in only 21 innings. Raymund Swert showed how rapidly he is becoming a force in 3-cushion (as well as balkline, his natural habitat), when he controlled Jerry Hermans 40-34 in 29. Only Kenny Miatton won for Team Eekhoorn, he edged De Kleine 40-38 in 31.
TOVV/Royal Pro travelled to Burgmans Biljarts and came back with a narrow 5-3 victory. Birol Uymaz won against Ronny Lindemann, 40-24 in 22). Martin Spoormans had the stronger finish against Marco Janssen (40-31 in 29), Rik van Beers, the only winner for Burgmans, was much too strong for Frans van Schaik, 40-16 in 22. Roijers and Bitalis shared the points in 37 innings.
A1 Biljarts had an easy afternoon against TOVV 2 (7-1), thanks to Eddy Merckx defeating Kay de Zwart (40-34 in 24), and wins by Martien van der Spoel (in 30) and Addy Wienk (in 33). Sander Jonen did well to keep Gerwin Valentijn to a draw in 27 innings.
With three rounds of play left, Eureka has the lead with 30 points, ahead of MC Breda with 25, A1 Biljarts with 24, HCR Prinsen with 23, Dallinga and Buffalo.nl both on 22. 't Hartje/Van Wanrooy saw their win over Dallinga take them out of the danger zone.