3-Cushion
OOSTERHOUT – It is not a coincidence, that the Netherlands is represented by three players (in a field of 16) at the World Championships for women, from 21 – 23 November in Japan. The KNBB is fortunate that not only Therese Klompenhouwer, the nr. 1 favorite, but also Karina Jetten and Monique van Hamond and earlier Gerrie Geelen have raised the level of three cushion for ladies.
The story of the Duch nationals, Therese as the poster child, new talents, and a legend from the past century. ,,Billiard playing ladies no longer smoke cigars.''
There is no doubt that Therese Klompenhouwer was in a class of her own at the DC in Oosterhout. She showed it in spades this weekend, with a world class match (for ladies) of 30 pts in 14 innings: 2.142 average. In the final against Karina Jetten, she even bettered that, making 30 pts in 13 innings: 2.307.
That’s two nice new entries to say the least, to Holland’s best player’s palmares, who is in pursuit of the one title that is missing from her resume.
Not only are the Netherlands a high quality country in ladies billiards, they also have the depth to play their Nationals with 16 players, 8 of those coming from preliminaries. Kozoom received many emails and Facebook messages in the past days, from billiard countries like Belgium, Germany, South Korea and even South America.
The message was invariably: ,,We envy the Netherlands, with this many billiard playing ladies and such a great National Championship with top players.''
Has Holland always been a country with billiard playing ladies?
Cees Sprangers, billiard journalist and walking billiard encyclopedia, wrote a story in one of his books, about Lies Schrier, a player from Domburg (Zeeland), who lived from 1887 to 1962 and excelled in various disciplines.
Cees Sprangers: ,,She had an average around 15.00 in the free game on the match table, and could do about 10.00 in balkline. That was unheard of in those days, certainly for a woman.
Lies Schrier stood out in the male world back then. She dressed like a man, and smoked cigars. In Domburg, in those years, the rumor was that she might even be a man in women’s clothes (as was said about athlete Foekje Dillema), even if that story was never proved.
You don’t see cigar smoking billiard playing ladies anymore. The new generation, in the shadow of Therese Klompenhouwer, have quite a different presentation.
Loes van Dansik from Lisse for example, who is looking to improve and will take lessons from Raimond Burgman.
Charissa Timmermans from Warmenhuizen, who already has a very stylish game.
Sharon van Dijk from Vught, former gymnast, who now focusses on billiards, and even makes the trip to the World Cup in Hurghada, to get the experience.
They are just small, uncut diamonds in the Dutch ladies billiard necklace, but they are an indication that a new generation is waiting in the wings.
The averages are not quite there yet, but the ambition is undeniable.
The spectators love it: they root for these ladies who want to get their foot in the door of this male sport.
Cees Sprangers has no problem calculating the progress made in this year’s DC. ,,There was significant interest in the prelims also, the KNBB have received 25 to 30 inscriptions, for the available 8 slots.''
The KNBB (national federation) will try to further stimulate this process. Tournament director Henny Wezenbeek said in Oosterhout: ,,We will abandon the system where the best 8 in the DC will be placed automatically next year, and reduce that number to 4. That way, the chances for ladies to place for the national final will improve.''
It must be said: on Sunday evening, the 16 ladies in the Dutch Championship could look back at a memorable tournament that was hosted exemplary. The images of the beautiful billiard room and the group meals tell the story: praise goes where it is due, to De Eekhoorn.