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Jaspers and Merckx in new dream team

05/18/2020

Published by frits bakker

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© © Kozoom
Dick Jaspers (r) and Eddy Merckx, together in one team in the Dutch league with SIS Schoonmaak

HEESWIJK DINTHER - The great plans of Dutch billiards sponsor Carl Verhoeven, for a new billiards center and a new top team, are increasingly taking shape. The SIS Cleaning owner announced today, Sunday, Dick Jaspers and Raymund Swertz will join his team. The Dutch premier league will be enriched by a new dream team with Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers, Jean van Erp, Raimond Burgman, Martien van der Spoel and Raymund Swertz. The new team will start in a renewed billiards center in Uden where Carl Verhoeven wants to launch one of the most ambitious plans in European billiards. The top team will be the flagship, and the development of youth, training sessions, media attention and opportunities to play for people of all ages are among the spearheads in the strategy.

Dutch billiards will face a pearl in the field of accommodations, Verhoeven assures. The center will be expanded further in the near future, for the time being it will accommodate two match tables and five small billiards and must be 'Corona proof' for this competition. Attracting the two new players was the first major success.

Carl Verhoeven: ''When Dick said that he wanted to play for us, I called one of our big sponsors in South Africa today. I told him the news and we had a glass of champagne together. Now, the road has opened further. We could not achieve this without bringing the ambassador of Dutch billiards and the number one in the world to our team. It was my big wish: Jaspers and Merckx as the leading players and build a wonderful team around them. I remain cautious: we hope that we are among the contenders for the title."

The Brabant sponsor further reveals: ''We are starting this project with three major sponsors. SIS Cleaning is the namesake and main sponsor, but when we attracted Eddy Merckx, I contacted two other business men to join the project, Ernst van Bekkum & Nynke Visser from Romans Villa in South Africa and Danny Vervoort (Installation Technology). We have made a sort of trinity with a budget to bring a big team.''

This Saturday, Verhoeven decided about Jeffrey Jorissen, who still hesitated to join the team. Jorissen himself will soon announce new plans, but says it is not yet certain that he will remain in The Hague. "We wanted to know whether he would come to us", says Carl Verhoeven, so Jorissen's decision has accelerated.  "Besides Dick Jaspers, I am also very happy with Raymund Swertz", Verhoeven continues. ''He is a young, extremely talented player, who can further develop in three cushion, but he is also very strong in other disciplines. We will be able to do great things in our centre with his skills to develop youth players.''

The acceleration of the plans has to do with the relaxation of the Corona rules. "I expect", says Carl Verhoeven, "that the competition will not start in September, but probably on October 1. Then we will make sure that we are ready.''

Dick Jaspers gave his final agreement these days: ''We are still negotiating for how many games, but that depends on his international schedules. He indicated that right away. Dick showed very happy with our plans. He realizes that if the international calendar doesn't continue for the rest of this year, he doesn't want to stay at home and be part of our top team."

Jaspers himself says in a first, quick reaction: ''I received a nice offer and I'm happy to join the plans, because I am impressed by Carl's ambitions and vision for the future. However, of course I am somewhat reluctant in the number of matches to play. The international calendar is not yet predictable. But it is a wonderful team, in which I can play. That's a very nice challenge. I know Carl for many years. We have to cherish people like him who want to promote billiards."

 

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