NIEUWEGEIN - The Dutch premier three-cushion league is led at the halfway stage by the Babbelz team with a wide margin over its main rivals. The leaders themselves won this Sunday against Nieuwegein, until then the number 3, 2-6 by victories of Frédéric Caudron (1.739), Dion Nelin (2.000) and Jack Wijnen (1.212). Only Davy van Havere had to bow to Henk Blauwblomme. That win took Babbelz to a five-point margin on the league table over Cues&Darts, Team Eekhoorn and STZ Zundert. At the bottom, J&F Auto's won the relegation match against De Biljartacademie.

Babbelz's first pursuer, Tilburg-based Cues&Darts team, made a slip in the away match against Zundert (5-3). That encounter brought tension until the final minutes, after Zundert had gone into the last game with a 4-2 lead. That match was decisive: Sergio Jimenez faced Glenn Hofman. The Hague player was still able to get a draw out of the match by winning, but when he finished at 40-35, the Spaniard managed to make the 5 points in the equalizer. Jimenez was great and scored a very hard equalizer for 40-40. It brought the score to 5-3 for Zundert instead of the 4-4 so coveted by Cues&Darts. For the Tilburg team, Therese Klompenhouwer was the only winner, after she made up a rather large deficit and won 40-34 in 27 against Thorsten Frings. Joey de Kok lost to Francis Forton 40-30 in 35 and Jef Philipoom came up short against Sam van Etten 40-32 in 24 innings.

Babbelz won the match against RCN Nieuwegein thanks to Frédéric Caudron, who beat Dave Christiani 40-25 in 23, Dion Nelin, beating Barry van Beers 40-26 in 20 and Jack Wijnen, who was victorious against Marnix de Kruijf 40-33 in 33.

Team Eekhoorn and SIS/Vervoort played a remarkable match, which ended in a generous 8-0 score for the Oosterhout camping team. The former champion was missing Jean van Erp as its leader, who attended André Rieu's concert with his parents (married 60 years). His teammates all had an off-day, as there were no winning chances for the SIS team in any match.

Eddy Leppens had the biggest margin in the match against Martien van der Spoel (40-12 in 18 innings). Nikos Polychronopoulos also gave his opponent Raimond Burgman little chance (40-27 in 20), Peter Ceulemans left Harrie van de Ven far behind (40-27 in 22) and Jerry Hermans completed the maximum victory against Wilco van Wijk (40-23 in 29).

Paperclip and Aartsbouw shared the points, partly because Dick Jaspers did not have a best day against Eddy Merckx and lost 40-25 in 29 innings, an exceptional match for Jaspers, well below his normal average with 0.862. Turgay Orak was the other winner for Aartsbouw, for Paperclip, Melnytschenko and Breur won against Brants and De Jaeger.

Bousema Lochem won 7-1 in a nice encounter against Dallinga thanks in part to a supreme Martin Horn against Jean Paul de Bruijn (40-31 in 19). Jeffrey Jorissen beat Steven van Acker 40-22 in 21 and only Peter De Backer played a draw for Dallinga against Stefan Galla.

J&F Auto's won the match in the bottom of the table against De Biljartacademie 2-6. Javier Palazón pulled off the last, important win against Roland Forthomme 40-33 in 20 innings.

Martin Horn, one of the best in the 11th round beating Jean Paul de Bruijn