3-Cushion
LEUVEN - The celebration of championship is planned for next week, for nothing or nobody could stop BC Deurne anymore on the way to the title of Belgium. But earlier than expected, the battle for the championship has been decided now. BC Deurne took the title without playing himself last night, because the team got the message that KBC Zanzibar, the only serious competitor, lost his home match against Geox Herentals.
The advantage of BC Deurne now is four points and KBC Zanzibar only has to play one more match. The champion himself comes to the billiard tonight in the match against the degraded Op de Meir, but Deurne don't need to worry about the outcome of that match.
Eddy Merckx, Jef Philipoom, Davy van Havere and Therese Klompenhouwer have shown themselves the best team in Belgium in a league with very strong competitors as BC Kasteeldreef (Caudron, Leppens), Zanzibar (Forthomme, Christiani), Billiart Express (Van Kuik, Valentijn), De Ploeg (Horn, Jensen), Mister 100 (Peter, Kurt, Raymond and Koen Ceulemans ), BC Geox (Nelin, Rudolph) and BC Quality (De Backer, De Bruijn).
The title is mainly the result of the collective, but also of the strong overall performance of Eddy Merckx and Jef Philipoom. Those two players unfortunately leave the team after this season, because there was interest from other teams. Moreover, the sponsor also could not give the certainty that he wanted to go on with the team with a big budget. Eddy Merckx for example said: ,,I have often consulted the team, because other teams were interested in a transfer. And at one moment, the boss from BC Deurne said: Eddy, if you can go, you must do it, because for us nothing is certain yet. So we remain good friends after I've left the team.''
In the battle for a possible third degradation place, there will be played an important match in Zele tonight. Koninklijke Eeklose and Op de Meir degrade for sure, the third last in the ranking has to play next weeks in the playoffs against a team from the second division. BC Quality Zele and BC Deurne Lugo are both in problems with sixteen points. The mutual match tonight (19.30) will probably be decisive, even both teams have one match to play.
KBC Zanzibar lost his last chance yesterday by a 5-3 defeat against Geox Herentals. Only Paul Stroobants defeated Geert Meylemans (42-36 in 33). Roland Forthomme played a draw against Dion Nelin (50-50 in 30). Forthomme made a run of twelve. Martin Horn shone with a run of thirteen for De Ploeg in the match against Kasteeldreef. He beat Frédéric Caudron in a good match (50-32 in 20). Eddy Leppens excelled against Alan Jensen with a run of twelve and a 50-25 victory in 32 innings.