3-Cushion
ANTWERP - The stop in the World Cups cycle has not affected the level of Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Leppens. The two Belgian top guns still shine in the national competitions in Belgium and the Netherlands, which allow the PBA players to perform in their league. Caudron and his team from Deurne are on top in Belgium and in the top three in the Netherlands with Dallinga. Leppens is chasing for the top position in Belgium with Op de Meir. On Tuesday evening, they both played an exceptional match in Belgium. Caudron was the better of Eddy Merckx 50-40 in 14 innings after an amazing start. Leppens knocked down Jef Philipoom 50-9 in 14 innings. Both Caudron and Leppens averaged 3.571. Leppens had a fabulous start and left his opponent far behind. Caudron started with 9 against Merckx and ran out to 32-3 in 7 after a series of 8-7-7. Merckx countered strongly with 8-1-7-3-7, bringing him to 37-34 in 12. In the last two innings, Caudron scored 8 and 5, Merckx 3 and 3 for a final score of 50-40.
BC Deurne lost one match point against Biljart Express, despite the great win of the leader, because Spoormans defeated Hermans 42-32 in 32 and Van Kuyk won his match over Van Erp 50-36 in 32. Van Havere scored for Deurne with a win over Valentijn: 42-32 in 29. Op the Meir came one point closer to Deurne after its half miss. With Leppens as the leading player, Op de Meir won 6-2 against De Ploeg: Roland Uijtdewillegen got the better of Therese Klompenhouwer (42-38 in 29), Peter De Backer snatched the win against Eddy Willems 42-19 in 20. Jack Wijnen from De Ploeg came out with a victory against Barry van Beers 50-48 in 35.
Kortrijkse and Mr. 100 Lier are the numbers 4 and 5 following Deurne, Op de Meir and Biljart Express in the top five: Kortrijk recorded a 4-4 in Herentals: Ronny Brants beat Christian Rudolph 50-40 in 35, Martin Horn defeated Dave Christiani 50-41 in 27. Leon Smolders was one carom ahead of Martin Ravestyn. Mister 100 defeated Masters in an away match 6-2. Peter and Raymond Ceulemans were the best winners for Mr 100 in 28 and 30 innings. Peter Ceulemans, who's heading for Korea this weekend for his first World Cup in that famous three cushion country, was the winner against Ronny Lindemann 50-38 in 28. Ceulemans: ''I am leaving for my Korea trip with two friends, Wesley de Jaeger and Tim Gorrebeeck, and I'm very curious for the billiard culture we will see there.'' Wesley and Tim are leaving these days, I still have to play competition in Spain on Saturday."
The top 5 in Belgium:
1 BC Deurne, 7 matches, 13 points
2 Op de Meir 7-12
3 Biljart Express 7-9
4 Kortrijkse 7-8
5 Mr. 100 7-7.