SPRUNDEL – The Dutch three-cushion league, heading for a great final sprint, will take a break for the coming weeks and is basking in the tension at the top of the standings. The leader, Aartsbouw, was defeated by Dallinga this Sunday and overtaken by Cues&Darts. The fight for one of the four play-off spots is becoming more captivating every week. Most of all because the upcoming phase is packed with top matches. The competition resumes after a three-week break on Sunday, April 19. The dark horse of recent weeks is Dallinga's team, which triumphed against SIS last week and inflicted a 2-6 defeat on Aartsbouw on their home court this Sunday. The decisive moment in this match came in the match between Eddy Merckx, who rarely loses in the competition, and Jean Paul de Bruijn. The level was exceptionally high in this match, in which De Bruijn made a fantastic attack in the final innings with a consecutive 12 and 6, got the finish line in sight at 38-27, and won 40-32 in 20 innings. It was Dallinga’s finishing touch, as Steven van Acker beat Wesley de Jaeger 40-31 in 25 before the break and Berry Dallinga could celebrate once again with a win against Ronny Brants: 40-37 in 47. At a 2-6 score, it was therefore no longer even necessary for Peter De Backer, a multi-winner in the Zeeland team, to secure the match points against Barry van Beers. The Brabant native went from 33-33 to 40-36 in 24.
The league leader, apparently in a slightly weaker phase, is therefore dropping points again and sees the other title contenders closing in further. Cues&Darts even overtakes Aartsbouw with a 26 match point victory against RCN, with 26 match points compared to 25 for Aartsbouw. Dallinga, Team Eekhoorn, and Bousema are the dangerous competitors. The upcoming matches include Cues&Darts-Aartsbouw, Dallinga-Bousema, and Cues&Darts-Dallinga.
Cues&Darts is the new league leader. In the away match against RCN Nieuwegein, the new leader was vulnerable in only one position. Joey de Kok lost to Henk Blaublomme in a poor match, 40-32 in 42 innings. The other trio from Tilburg secured the win, with Glenn Hofman playing brilliantly once again. The Hague player defeated Gerwin Valentijn 40-31 in 15 innings, after Valentijn had stayed close for a long time and also played an excellent average. Torbjörn Blomdahl, who only plays twice with Cues&Darts this season, defeated Dave Christiani by a narrow margin (40-34 in 33), and Jef Philipoom bested Philippe Vandendriessche 40-18 in 27.
Dick Jaspers is coming off a few difficult weeks in his personal life; he put up a good fight against Roland Forthomme but had to let the Belgian go ahead 40-34 in 23 innings. That was decisive for Van Baal's victory over Paperclip, after Anno de Kleine had secured the only points for Paperclip against Sam van Etten. The start of the match before the break was curious; Van Baal took a 4-0 lead in two real thrillers. Rik van Beers beat Dan Breur 40-39 (in 36), and Francis Forton won by the same score against Peter van Lieshout, despite the loser being one carom away after a run of 12 (40-39 in 34).
Team Eekhoorn, with Eddy Leppens as captain, had a walkover against Harwig, the last-placed team: 8-0. Leppens was the best winner in 22 innings against Dekker (14-17), while Peter Ceulemans, Frans van Kuyk, and Jerry Hermans secured victories in 32, 40, and 35 innings.
Burgmans Biljarts and SIS/Vervoort shared the win in Bergeijk after a magnificent final sprint by Jean van Erp, who, trailing 28-14, launched a nice battle and, among other things, secured the win against Davy van Havere with a run of 10, 40-37 in 23. Raimond Burgman won against Erwin Kivits; Burgmans' victories came from Marco Janssen and Johan Roijers. Raymund Swertz made a nice 12 against Janssen but was defeated 40-37 in 27.
With a few matches remaining, the level of averages and high runs is growing. Dallinga shone this Sunday with a 14 for Peter De Backer, 12 for Jean Paul de Bruijn, and 12 for Steven van Acker.
The averages of top players, with Glenn Hofman playing a starring role for weeks, are close together. Glenn Hofman stands at 1.695 in 14 matches, Eddy Merckx at 1.692 in 14, and Dick Jaspers at 1.691 in 16. The highest in the competition so far is Ruben Legazpi with 1.826 out of 9, ahead of Nick Polychronopoulos with 1.711 out of 13. Two Turkish players are over 2 average, but played only 2 matches. Berkay Karakurt at 2.580, Tayfun Tasdemir at 2.571.
The standings in the Kozoom league:
- Cues&Darts 17-26
- Aartsbouw 17-25
- Team Eekhoorn 16-21
- Dallinga 17-21
- Bousema 16-20
- SIS/Vervoort 16-15
- Van Baal 16-15
- Paperclip 16-13
- Burgmans Biljarts 16-11
- RCN Nieuwegein 17-7
- Harwig 16-6