Zanzibar winner despite strong Martin Horn

HERENTALS - On the eve before the final decision in the Belgian championship, Zanzibar defeated one of its competitors for a top five position. Martin Horn showed a great form with Herentals and defeated Roland Forthomme 50-30 in 17 innings. The German captain saw teammates lose their matches, making Zanzibar the eventual winner 6-2.

Tonight (Tuesday) in the Salpho in Malle the new champion will almost certainly be honoured: De Goeie Queue/AEJ plays a home match against Biljart Express and may raise the champions flag in case of a tie. Five rounds before the end of the competition, there is no doubt that the top team can celebrate the title.

Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx and Jean Paul de Bruijn play against Frans van Kuyk, Gerwin Valentijn, Martin Spoormans and Guy van Litsenborg. The new world champions, Caudron and Merckx, will surely be in the spotlights before the match.

Four of six games were played Monday night. Zanzibar showed up with a big surprise in the away match against Herentals with wins for Dave Christiani vs Christian Rudolph (50-42 in 33), Kenny Miatton vs Leon Smolders (42-41 in 37) and Pierre Soumagne against Geert Meylemans (42-33 in 33).

BC Deurne took its revenge for a painful loss against De Ploeg 2, a few weeks ago and won the home match against De Ploeg 1: 8-0. Jef Philipoom was the best of the evening beating Ronny Lindemann (50-32 in 24 innings). Jean van Erp defeated Huub Wilkowski (50-27 in 34), Davy van Havere left Dirk Weeremans ten points behind (42-32 in 29) and Ludo Dielis bested Eddy Willems 42-33 in 34.

De Ploeg 2 and De Witte Molen shared the win with Glenn Hoffman (Sint Niklaas team) as best of the evening: 50-29 in 30 innings against Jack Wijnen. Matthy Monnissen (against Francis Forton) and Wim van Dijck (against Ad Broeders) took the win for De Ploeg in 42 and 34 innings.

Sint Truiden won the match between two newcomers in the highest league: Royal Brugge was defeated 6-2. Henk Blauwblomme was the only winner for Bruges against Frédéric Mottet (33 innings). Thomas Broux, Paul Dumont and Kurt Bruggheman were successful for Sint Truiden.