SLUISKIL - Success and disappointment were close together in Dallinga's billiard arena on Sunday. Bousema, the team that won 0-8, celebrated late afternoon that they have qualified for the play-offs, while Dallinga has to fight against relegation after that tough loss. The final match day of the premier league brought the final decisions. Babbelz, Cues&Darts, Team Eekhoorn and Bousema are the four teams that will contest the championship with Team Eekhoorn against Bousema to start. Dallinga will play a match against Café De Kuul from Huissen on Friday 9 May in Sluiskil for staying in the premier league or relegation.
Bousema/JBSCues' formidable final sprint was too powerful for Dallinga on Sunday. The eastern team won all four games under 30 innings and crowned the job with Tayfun Tasdemir against Sameh Sidhom (40-33 in 29) and Martin Horn against Jean Paul de Bruijn (40-34 in 20). That match by the German was the best: Horn seemed to finish with 16, missed after 15, but then finished it off in the 20th inning. The other two games ended in Bousema's favour before the break. Gökhan Salman beat Steven van Acker 40-20 in 24 and Johan Loncelle was the better against Peter De Backer 40-37 in 26.
All this made Bousema's match balance even more favorable. Due to Zundert's 6-2 loss against Cues&Darts, Bousema and Zundert finished equal on 25 match points, but Bousema had a much better game balance with 98-78 against 89-87 for Zundert.
Team captain Ronny Hazewinkel couldn't believe his luck after that stunning showdown. ’’It’s a reward for our players. On Saturday, things were not going our way and we lost to Cues&Darts flatteringly 6-2. We were not in control then, but fortunately Cues&Darts did its sporting duty against Zundert and we were very sharp against Dallinga. Especially when the pressure increased on Tayfun (Tasdemir) and Martin (Horn), we finished it off superbly. I have to congratulate my players.‘’
The first match for the play-offs between Team Eekhoorn and Bousema will be played 1pm on Sunday at the campsite in Oosterhout. The winner will meet Cues&Darts at a later stage
Team Eekhoorn went to SIS on Sunday for its last mission and won that match 2-6, leaving Eekhoorn in third place. Nick Polychronopoulos won vs Jean van Erp 40-30 in 28, Eddy Leppens vs Raimond Burgman 40-28 in 31 and Kurt Ceulemans vs Martien van der Spoel 40-39 in 32 innings. The only loser for Eekhoorn was Peter Ceulemans against Raymund Swertz 40-31 in 25.
The loser of the day was Zundert, which was relegated to fifth position and thus missed out on everything. The Brabant team faced the Cues&Darts team in a match close to home and went down 6-2. Glenn Hofman (against Jimenez, 40-27 in 29), Therese Klompenhouwer, in a strong match against Frings (40-11 in 19) and Joey de Kok (against Forton 40-32 in 34) fielded the verdict on Zundert for Cues&Darts.
Team Babbelz concluded the successful competition with a draw against RCN Nieuwegein. Two games ended in a draw: Caudron against Christiani in 18 innings, Bulut against Valentijn in 21 innings. Barry van Beers won against Dion Nelin 40-32 in 21, Davy van Havere vs Henk Blauwblomme 40-19 in 13.
Aartsbouw beat Paperclip 6-2 partly due to a win by Eddy Merckx in the top match against Dick Jaspers: 40-37 in 26. Tom Persyn and Wesley de Jaeger were the Belgian winners against Dan Breur and Peter van Lieshout.
In the encounter between the two relegated teams, the score was 4-4 between J&F Auto's and De Biljartacademie. Best match: Forthomme-Palazón 40-36 in 22.
The final ranking of individual averages, with a minimum of 5 matches) is led by Frédéric Caudron with 2.066 out of 17 matches ahead of Eddy Merckx with 1.979, Martin Horn with 1.859 and Glenn Hofman as the first Dutchman in 4th place with 1.812. Dion Nelin is 5th with 1,776. Dick Jaspers (7th, 1.721) and Jean van Erp (1.668) finished in the top 10. Therese Klompenhouwer shone with a great 20th place in this field of top players: she achieved 1,438 out of 9 matches. And even more striking: 9 played, 8 won.
The individual ranking on average:
- Caudron 2.066
- Merckx 1.979
- Horn 1.859
- Hofman 1.812
- Nelin 1.776
- Legazpi 1.733
- Jaspers 1.721
- Palazón 1.689
- Van Erp 1.668
- Polychronopoulos 1.666
- Tasdemir 1.632
- Forthomme 1.616
- Peter Ceulemans 1.587
- Sidhom 1.580
- Leppens 1.540
- Orak 1.471
- Van Etten 1.463
- Loncelle 1.453
- Melnytschenko 1.445
- Klompenhouwer 1.438
- Valentijn 1.433
- Christiani 1.431
- De Bruijn 1.418
- Van der Spoel 1.418
The final ranking after 22 matches:
- Team Babbelz 38-1.453
- Cues&Darts 31-1.444
- Team Eekhoorn 26-1.387
- Bousema 25-1.348
- Zundert 25-1.247
- RCN Nieuwegein 23-1.337
- Aartsbouw 23-1.316
- Paperclip 21-1.258
- SIS/Vervoort 20-1.402
- Dallinga 19-1.224
- J&F Auto’s 10-1.096
- De Biljartacademie 3-1.109.