The leader in the Belgian team competition, the Herstalien team with Roland Forthomme as the still unbeaten frontrunner, plays an away match against Op de Meir tonight (Monday). That is only known in a small circle, many many matches in the Belgian team competition have been mutually rescheduled or postponed. There is chaos and mystery, as it sounds from the circles of players and team bosses, just like the rankings are uncertain after three rounds. Op de Meir is bottom with 0 points, but won last week's match against Billiard Promotion Team 8-0. Peter Ceulemans, when we ask him about the reason for the week off for all teams: ’’That is a mystery to everyone.'' Moreover, says the Mister 100 frontman, we have not a free day, we play against De Ploeg tonight. Playing ahead or catching up? Whoever knows exactly, may say so now. Marc Verhagen from Op de Meir: ’’We see our won match still open in the league results, but we are now mid-table.'' Besides, says the Op de Meir team boss, we are playing our away match against Herstalien at home tonight instead of away.
So far as it’is known, Herstalien is the leader now with six points out of three matches. Roland Forthomme is the team's proud leader with three wins, twice 40 in 19 innings, once 40 in 21. In the third week of play, Herstalien won 7-1 against BC T's Place, which also made a good start, but now dropped to sixth place. In that match, Roland Forthomme beat Peter De Backer 40-22 in 19. The team on top further plays with Pierre Soumagne, Dany Boutet and Thomas Broux.
Mister 100, the champion, has four points out of three matches and thus plays his fourth match tonight. The one loss Mister 100 suffered in the second round of play against Herstal (6-2). That included a remarkable win by Roland Forthomme against Peter Ceulemans (40-13 in 19) in a period in which Ceulemans is demonstrating an excellent form in his matches. Mister 100 had though won the first match against Op de Meir 6-2 with an strong Bart Ceulemans against Wesley de Jaeger (40-28 in 20).
Driebanden Club De Leug maintains a strong position in the top three of the rankings with five points out of three matches. The team with Jeffrey Jorissen as triple winner beat Kortrijk last week 6-2 with Jorissen on a win against Ronny Brants (40-30 in 33) and only Therese Klompenhouwer as losing team player against Philippe Vandendriessche (40-22 in 28).
Biljart Express went on to win with the maximum score over De Ploeg (8-0) and also nestled in the top. Dave Christiani was BE team's best winner against Eddy Willems 40-22 in 17, Eddy Merckx beat Dustin Jäschke with 40-29 in 21. Dutchman Joey de Kok lost to Frans van Kuyk 40-23 in 30 after two wins at the start of the competition.
Witte Molen went to KBC Bruges for the full match points with only Steven van Acker winning for the Bruges locals against Frédéric Mottet 40-29 in 28. Francis Forton was the best man for De Witte Molen with a win in 28 innings against Blauwblomme. For Mister 100, Kurt Ceulemans won with the best score in the match against De Leug 2: 40-25 in 22 against Kenny Miatton. The champion's 8-0 win set them on the way up. Johan Loncelle has yet to get going at De Leug 2 and lost his 3 games so far with low scores for his standards. The most remarkable run in the third round came from Peter Meersman, Billiard Promotion Team's fourth man: he made a 13 in the match against Roger Roefs, which Meersman won 40-26 in 25.
Peter Meersman scored the best run for his team in the third round: 13