3-Cushion
ZUNDERT - How long will it take before Jean Paul de Bruijn makes his presence known once again, at the summit of world three cushion? The Dutch champion is known for having ups and a decreasing number of downs, as a feared opponent for the big names, but as yet too inconsistent to make it into the privileged top 12.
At the Zundert Christmas tournament - which he has won in the past - where he makes a comeback of sorts, he has qualified for the quarter finals after just two rounds. An excellent victory over Frédéric Caudron in his second match sealed the deal.
Jean Paul de Bruijn (Jeepee to insiders) had the lead most of the match, against his front man in the Dallinga team. 22-13 in ten innings (run of 10), then Caudron opened matters up again with a dash to 24-23, but de Bruijn made it 37-35, 41-38 and 45-45, to go for the win. He missed his first match ball, a difficult pique over the full length of the table, but after Caudron has missed, he ended the match: 50-45 in 32 innings.
Jean Paul de Bruijn, Tayfun Tasdemir, Dave Christiani and Jef Philipoom lead the groups after two rounds, but everything still depends on the third and final matches. Jean Paul de Bruijn and Jef Philipoom are the only two players definitely placed, in the other two flights no player is certain as yet.
Frans van Kuyk, Martin Spoormans, Gerwin Valentijn and probably Glenn Hofman are very long odds to make it to the next round.
Jean Paul de Bruijn is out of reach in his flight, with four match points and Martin Spoormans as his last opponent. Raimond Burgman overtook Frédéric Caudron in the second match, by beating Spoormans (50-31 in 21 innings).
Both Burgman and Caudron have two points from two matches, Burgman with a slightly higher average: 1.688 versus 1.666, which means he needs only a draw to stay ahead of the world champion.
Jef Philipoom first defeated Peter Ceulemans on the opening day, and then also Eddy Merckx (50-41 in 30). That means Philipoom is locked into the quarters. The winner of the match Merckx-Ceulemans will join him in the next round, in case of a draw it will be Merckx, who has the better average: 1.491 versus 1.311.
The other two flights are tension-filled.
Dave Christiani and Jean van Erp lead flight A with three match points, Roland Forthomme has one less. The two leaders drew in the second round: 45-49, after a run of six by Christiani and a missed match ball, Van Erp finishing with five, his opponent equalizing from the spots.
Roland Forthomme defeated Frans van Kuyk 50-42 in 29 innings, which keeps him in the race. The Belgian still has to face Jean van Erp, Christiani plays Van Kuyk. The averages: Christiani 1.538, Van Erp 1.408, Forthomme 1.491.
Tayfun Tasdemir has so far scored maximum points, but still is not locked in. The Turk meets Eddy Leppens in the last round, who is on two match points, as is Barry van Beers. Both van Beers and Leppens have a higher average than Tasdemir.
Eddy Leppens can only save his skin if he beats the Turkish guest player, and he worked on his confidence in the second match by producing a good run into the stable. The Belgian played Glenn Hofman, also fighting for his last chance, and trailed 14-0 (3 innings), 22-3 (6) and 28-9 (11), and all seemed hopeless, but he found his second wind and produced a run of 11 to equal at 45-45, to finally beat Hofman 50-48 in 25 innings.
Barry van Beers also had to perform a minor miracle to stay in his match with Tasdemir. The man from Brabant, who shone on day 1, looked at backlogs of 15-2 and 23-4, clawed his way back with a run of ten, and at 31-26 and 39-36 was in it with a shout. When Tasdemir finished, he needed six more in the equalizer, but came up one point short: 50-49 in 38.
After two rounds, Barry van Beers has the best general average (1.800) ahead of Jef Philipoom and Jean Paul de Bruijn with 1.785, Raimond Burgman with 1.688 and Frédéric Caudron with 1.666. Four players have a high run of 12: Tasdemir, Christiani, Philipoom and Merckx.