TILBURG - The frontrunner does not shy away from anyone and is the big new name in Dutch billiards. For now, the Babbelz team is reminding to other great team champions of the past in the premier league, such as SIS Schoonmaak and Dallinga, but is still at the very beginning of that hegemony. The performance of the Oosterhout team, playing last Sunday with Caudron, Karakurt, Nelin and Uijtdewillegen, is impressive. The number two until Sunday, Cues&Darts, deployed all its assets to stunt against the frontrunner, but even with Blomdahl, Hofman, Soumagne and Hashas, the team was brutally wiped out in front of its own crowd by 0-8!!!
The leading player Frédéric Caudron himself led the team with a brilliant win over Torbjörn Blomdahl: 40-27 in 10 innings. The Belgian started with 6, 0 and 6 and later made another 7, 6 and 8 before finishing. The Swede, making his debut for the team, started with two 5’s, scored another 8, but was beaten without any chance. That also happened, among others, to Burak Hashas, the Turkish talent, who had been brought to the Netherlands for the top match by Cues&Darts in his off weeks for the PBA league. The young Turk played against the fourth player in the Dutch team, Roland Uijtdewillegen, and was also trounced 40-27 in 36 innings.
Two other top players from Babbelz completed the maximum win. Berkay Karakurt went over Glenn Hofman in the closing stages 40-35 in 20 and Dion Nelin was also excellent against Pierre Soumagne with 40-16 in 12. A resounding victory with a magnificent team-average for Babbelz, which is expanding its lead: 5 points on Team Eekhoorn and STZ Zundert, 7 points even on Cues&Darts and Bousema.
What also hit hard was the double knock-out for Cues&Darts, as also in the first match of the premier league the Tilburg team was defeated by the new revelation of Dutch team billiards.
Two other matches were also played for the 12th matchday. SIS Vervoort played against De Biljartacademie, which missed Roland Forthomme due to the Belgian championships. De Biljartacademie played with three men and lost 6-2. Jean van Erp won vs Roy Zielemans 40-7 in 14, Martien van der Spoel vs Wilco Meusen 40-33 in 20.
Team Eekhoorn was also good for a generous score in the match against Paperclip. In that match, Eddy Leppens was the big man for Eekhoorn. The PBA Belgian had a magical start against Anno de Kleine with 5, 8, 0 and 19 (32 in 4 innings) and eventually won 40-25 in 13. Nick Polychronopoulos beat Dick Jaspers 40-34 in 20, Jerry Hermans won vs Breur and Erwin Kivits vs Peter van Lieshout, allowing Team Eekhoorn to present an 8-0 victory to its home crowd.