BRUSSELS - There are just some two weeks to go before the Belgian team competition finally kicks off for a long marathon of matches. On Monday, September 6, the season opens with the first three matches. And one day later, the other three matches will be played on Tuesday evening. Biljart Express with frontman Eddy Merckx (for those who remember) is the reigning champion. Martin Spoormans (turned 71 this summer), has lost count, but in Guy van Litsenborgs champion team, he has an improbable record of matches and titles to his name.
If you ask him about his earlier years, he will give you a typical Spoormans answer: ''My first win over Raymond Ceulemans was 50 years ago. I was leading 30-17 in 16, Ceulemans came back strongly, but I won 60-54 in 48 innings.'' That was a first highlight in his glittering career, many would follow.
The old masters can both still be admired, although Raymond Ceulemans (who turned 84 this summer) has signed up as a substitute player for the Mister 100 team in Lier. He will only play in high contingency, because Marco Janssen is the first reserve for Mister 100. Peter Ceulemans, grandson of the legend, is the head man there. Other well-known leaders in the Belgian team competition are Eddy Merckx, Roland Forthomme, Peter De Backer and Jean van Erp.
Two strong Germans, Martin Horn and Christian Rudolph, have disappeared from the competition, because the team of BC Herentals has stopped. Also Dave Christiani has dropped out as the leading player of Kortrijkse and Therese Klompenhouwer, the ladies world champion, shows up in a lower class at BC De Leug 2. Two young Germans lead one of the teams in the line-up: Dustin Jäschke with De Ploeg, Tom Löwe with De Witte Molen, which has another young talent in the team in Dutch classical specialist Sam van Etten.
BC Den Eik has with Glenn Hofman and BC Op de Meir with Eddy Leppens two PBA players on the list. The Korean competition has announced more tournaments, so the appearances of the Dutchman and the Belgian will be limited to substitutes. Pierre Soumagne is one of the players who returned from a short PBA adventure. The Frenchman plays for the Zanzibar team. Jean Paul de Bruijn also quit in Korea and plays in the Billiard Promotion Team in the second division.
Biljart Express may again call itself the undisputed favourite. Guy van Litsenborg, the team boss, met some critics in Corona time, because he refused to play. ''I got a lot of criticism, but proved to be right afterwards, because the competition was stopped'', he wants to look back on it.
Not much has changed in the composition of the highest playing teams since then. The established names are also at the start of the competition this year, which starts on Monday 6 September, after the 11th round on 15 December the teams go into the short winter break and on 17 January continue with the 12th round and ends on 3 May with the final round.
Mister 100, already feared because it plays its home games in the Ceulemans stronghold, BC Op de Meir, BC Den Eik are counted among the main competitors, DBC De Leug, KBC Zanzibar and KBC Kortrijkse are outsiders.
The matches for the first matchday are:
Monday 6 September:
BC De Ploeg-BC Den Eik
KBC Brugse-BC Op de Meir
DBC De Leug-Mister 100
Tuesday 7 September:
KBC Kortrijk-KBC Zanzibar
TBA Biljartpalace-De Witte Molen
BC Biljart-world-BC Biljart Express.
The planned line-ups are:
BC Den Eik: Jean van Erp, Glenn Hofman, Davy van Havere, Richard Bitalis, Ludo Dielis, Jef Gijsels
DBC De Leug: Johan Loncelle, Wesley de Jaeger, Ronny Lindemann, Frank de Groof
Biljart-World: Danny Wuyts, Luc Salvo, Tom Persyn, Geert Meylemans, Leon Smolders
BC De Ploeg: Dustin Jäschke, Huub Wilkowski, Eddy Willems, Roger Roefs
BC Op de Meir: Peter De Backer, Barry van Beers, Roland Uijtdewillegen, Ivan Stitschinsky, Eddy Leppens
Mister 100 Lier: Peter Ceulemans, Kurt Ceulemans, Bart Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans, Raymond Ceulemans, Paul Bruijstens, Marco Janssen
TBA Biljart: Kay de Zwart, Frank Martens, Ronny Daniels, Erik Hendrickx
KBC Zanzibar: Roland Forthomme, Pierre Soumagne, Andy de Bondt, Kenny Miathon
Biljart Express: Eddy Merckx, Frans van Kuyk, Gerwin Valentijn, Martin Spoormans, Guy van Litsenborg
Kon. Brugse: Steven van Acker, Henk Blauwblomme, Bart Leys, Koen Saver
KBC Kortrijk: Ronny Brants, Martin Ravestyn, Philippe Vandendriessche, Frédéric Beghin, Frédéric Roelants
De Witte Molen: Tom Löwe, Dirk Weeremans, Francis Forton, Sam van Etten, Ad Broeders.
The Mr. 100 team with Peter Ceulemans, Kurt Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans, Bart Ceulemans and the reserve player Raymond Ceulemans
Peter De Backer, the leading player in the Op de Meir team, who is playing the Kozoom finals in two weeks with two other Belgians: Eddy Merckx and Roland Forthomme.