Big Three on top again in Dutch league

VLAARDINGEN – The Big Three of the Dutch Eredivisie have found the rostrum, after only three rounds of play. A1 Biljarts, las year’s champion,  Dallinga/Frans Bevers and TOVV.nl/MCR lead the table with the maximum 6 pts. Three possible contenders for a place in the play-offs, Holland Mineraal, Snellen Recycling and Dekker Keukens, have already lost valuable points in these three rounds.

The most noteworthy facts from the double weekend were the superb stats from Dallinga/Frans Bevers in the third round: almost 1.900 from 4 players combined. The high run by Frans van Schaik (14), which was the best of the weekend. And the exciting final stages of the Belgian contest between Roland Forthomme and Eddy Merckx, which ended in a draw after Merckx had equalised fromthe dots.

Kurt Ceulemans remained unbeaten when playing Jérémy Bury and Gerwin Valentijn, and both Frédéric Caudron and Jean Paul de Bruijn in the away game of Dallinga had 21-inning wins: the best matches in the third round of play. De Bruijn’s win was special, he defeated his idol in the Zeeland derby against Martens Cleaning, 50-39 thanks to a strong finish from 38-37: 9 and 3.

Snellen Recycling lost, playing without Peter Ceulemans (his better half Bettina gave birth to a son this Sunday evening) to TOVV, in spite of Forthomme’s draw and Barry van Beers‘ nice victory over Frans van Kuyk: 50-35 in 29.

Glenn Hofman had an excellent weekend, winning twice in 28 innings. Martin Spoormans had to concede his match against Caudron, but could point to a scoreboard that showed 44 pts in 21 innings, so well done Martin.

Francis Forton, who had won twice, lost his first point in round 3, drawing with Anno de Kleine. Jelle Pijl had been strong on Saturday against Hofman, but lost that match in the home stretch. On Sunday, he once again showed great form against Henk Habraken, beating his seasoned opponent 50-30 in 22 innings.

Two Sunday afternoon matches were decided by the smallest possible margin: Ronny Daniëls beat Fabian Blondeel 50 - 49, Richard Bitalis won against Frédéric Mottet by that same score: the Wallonian needed two points in the equalising inning but made only one, costing Snellen a draw.