LIER - Two top teams faced each other in the Belgian team competition this week. It came to a spectacular encounter between Mister 100 Lier and Herstalien, in which Peter Ceulemans and Roland Forthomme drew after an eventful match. The encounter itself ended in a 5-3 victory for Mister 100, which has now overtaken the leader by that win. Peter Ceulemans and Roland Forthomme, the frontrunners, started with a superior Ceulemans, who ran out to an 18-0 lead. Forthomme's come-back was just as wonderful: the Herstalien frontman almost went to victory, but stranded on one carom. The score was 33-39 for Forthomme and at that score Ceulemans played out with 7. The equalizer was for Forthomme, who was able to score his last point in 22th inning. Jerry Hermans and Kurt Ceulemans won for Mister 100 against Dany Boutet and Pierre Soumagne in 24 and 26 innings, Thomas Broux beat Bart Ceulemans 40-29 in 31.
The top match went up and down in the score. Peter Ceulemans led 18-0 after Roland Forthomme had recorded seven zeros. But Forthomme came incredibly strong in the match with runs of 7, 8, 9 and 5. He led 30-22 in 13, ran out to 38-27 in 19, but then Ceulemans turned on for the final sprint with 6 (33-39) and 7 in the 22nd inning for 40-39. Forthomme's equalizer leelled the score again.
Mister 100 is in the lead with 22 points from 14 rounds of play ahead of Herstalien with 21 and Biljart Express also with 21. Only Op de Meir has one more match to catch up, Thursday against De Witte Molen, in which a win could put it right in first place. Biljart Express also showed its best against TBA Biljartpalace winning 8-0. The Turnhout team played a formidable team average: 1.860. Eddy Merckx won vs Weeremans in 23 innings (1.739), Frans van Kuyk vs Martens in 19 (2.105), Dave Christiani vs Daniels in 23 (1.739) and Martin Spoormans vs Stitschinsky in 21 (1.904).
De Leug and Kortrijk 2 showed up for a moderate match against each other, ending in 4-4 with all players averaging around 1,000. For De Leug, Jeffrey Jorissen lost to Frédéric Roelants 40-19 in 20, Therese Klompenhouwer to Willy Leman 40-29 in 28. Davy van Havere and Andy de Bondt won their match for De Leug. At Kortrijk 1 against De Ploeg, a forfait score came on the board. De Ploeg could not get four players together for the second time in a short time. Ronny Brants (Kortrijk): ‘’We got a phone call at half past five that they weren't coming.‘’ So in Belgian regulations, that means Kortrijk wins 8-0 against De Ploeg.
Roland Forthomme, a great come-back, a fierce attack and finally a draw
The ranking:
- Mister 100, 22 out of 14
- BC Herstalien 21
- Biljart Express 21
- Op de Meir 20 out of 13
- Kortrijkse 13
- T’s Place 13
- De Witte Molen 12
- Brugse 11
- De Leug 11
- De Ploeg 7
- TBA Biljartpalace 5