3-Cushion
HAARLO/OOSTERHOUT - The billiard room in Hotel Prinsen was getting ready for a big party when the home team seemed on it's way to a spectacular win in the Dutch league. The opponent was SIS Schoonmaak, the main title contender. Three home players were on the win, only Eddy Leppens was ten points behind against Jean van Erp, but 6-2 might be a great success. Then, suddenly, came the powerful attack in Leppens' match, the undisputed highlight, not only in the Prinsen-SIS game, but in the entire round in the Buffalo league. Leppens trailed ten points, 27-17, and started his 14th inning: he smoothly ran to 10 points, to 15, to the gap of 20... and made his last three winning points in the ecstasy of the finish: 23! !!
What Leppens did was world class. He was very close to the 26, made by the Korean Jae-Ho Cho in the Survival Masters in Seoul the day before. But the Korean had missed at the end of his run. What if the Belgian could have continued his run, what if he could have attacked the world record. What if... it's just a crazy question, because that's not how it is in billiards. And moreover, Jean van Erp still had to play the equalizer for SIS, which he missed, by the way.
SIS Cleaning-HCR Princes: 8-0!
That was the amazing score, indeed, a maximum victory for the home team, that even missed Dick Jaspers (but SIS missed Eddy Merckx) and surely made an incredibly strong impression: 160 caroms in 86 innings, team average 1,860. And besides Leppens-Van Erp (40-27 in 14) the other matches were: Philipoom-Burgman (40-30 in 20), Pijl-Jorissen (40-28 in 29) and Swertz-Van der Spoel (40-11 in 23). What a huge win for the HC Prinsen team that failed in its two first matches. And what a painful loss for SIS Cleaning, maybe even the biggest punishment in recent years for Cor Trampe and his top team.
The Buffalo league was put upside down on this third day of playing. SIS Schoonmaak lost the lead, Bousema Lochem unexpectedly lost one match point against 's Lands Welvaren. And another big surprise: 't Hartje van Oosterhout remained the only team on the maximum points by an 8-0 win in the away match against Dekker Keukens. So, 0-8 for the new leader. The best winner was Glenn Hofman in that match against Jacob Haack Sörensen (40-29 in 22), just one inning better than Davy van Havere against Ad Koorevaar (40-21 in 23).
Dallinga.com lost one point in the away match against Team Eekhoorn. The difference in quality between the leading players and the numbers three and four was immense. Frédéric Caudron played a phenomenal match against Frans van Kuyk, recording by far the best victory of the day: 40-21 in 11 with a final run of 12. Jean Paul de Bruijn was early in the match 15-5 down to Peter Ceulemans, but recovered at the end. When the Belgian, due to the tension or loss of concentration, lost his way in the decisive innings with some bad misses, De Bruijn seized hischances for 40-37 in 23. How different was it before the break. Steven van Acker played a 1-average game and lost to Kurt Ceulemans (40-34 in 33). Berry Dallinga was a way too weak for Jerry Hermans (40-17 in 36).
't Ivoor could celebrate its first point by a 4-4 against STZ Zundert. The most striking match? Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon, who was 15-0 down in 5 innings against Dave Christiani and finally lost 40-23 in 20. The Van Beers brothers won the matches for Zundert.