OOSTERHOUT - The team boss himself shouted a loud 'yesssssss', the players cheered along for the 5-3 victory that SIS Schoonmaak finally could celebrate. The top match in the Kozoom league, the Dutch premier league, was won on Sunday afternoon by SIS Schoonmaak, the most successful team in recent years, against Team Eekhoorn,. Team owner, sponsor and biggest fan Carl Verhoeven, revealed in a preview this week how much effort, financial and physical, his team's survival costs him. That’s why victory over the runner-up, the strong Team Eekhoornvoor, was such a huge relief. The winning score was literally dragged away from the gates of hell. Because Frans van Kuyk played such a great, first game against Raymund Swertz (23-0 ahead, 40-9 win in 13 innings), SIS Schoonmaak was in trouble from then on. Jean van Erp's final sprint against Peter Ceulemans with a final run of eight (40-34 in 27) gave some extra air just before the break, but even then at least one win was needed after the break.
Eddy Merckx, a team player who will never let Carl Verhoeven down, left no doubt about what a valuable front-runner he usually is for SIS. The Belgian faced Nikos Polychronopoulos, the Greek who had come over especially for the topper. Merckx mounted an irresistible attack, put 'Poly' on a wide margin and won by a generous margin: 40-26 in 16 innings, after Frans van Kuyk's 13 innings, the best match of this match day in the premier league. Then it was all down to Jerry Hermans, the local team boss, and Martien van der Spoel. By winning, the home team could equalize with SIS and maintain the lead, but a win for Martien van der Spoel, or a draw, would put the Schoonmaak team in profit. And so it happened. The final stage was wildly exciting, both players had chances, but in the end Van der Spoel finished first and Hermans could only equalize with 2. That made it a 40-40 in 43 innings.
SIS Schoonmaak therefore grabs the leading position in the Kozoom league with 14 points out of 18 matches ahead of Team Eekhoorn with 12, Cues&Darts and Topbiljart Zundert with 10 points and Dekker/AP with 9 points.
Indeed, the other top affair between Cues&Darts and Topbiljart Zundert ended in a 6-2 win for the Tilburgers. The latter had their best player in Huub Wilkowski, promoter of the team, with a win against Sam van Etten: 40-28 in 25. Pierre Soumagne won the match with Thorsten Frings by a hair: 40-38 in 32. Volkan Cetin signed for maximum win by 40-34 in 34 against Francis Forton. As a result, the victory of Rik van Beers, who fought back from a street-length behind against Jack van Peer and won 40-29 in 31, could not limit the damage.
Jeffrey Jorissen was the savior for Bousema at home with a resounding victory over Dion Nelin 40-31 in 28 innings. That was needed for the shared win against DKM Tools, which had taken a lead after wins by Davy van Havere (40-26 in 22 against Johan Loncelle) and Jack Wijnen (40-30 against Frans van Schaik in 26), but had been forced into a draw by Jorissen and Galla.
J&F Auto's and Dallinga were evenly matched. Joey de Kok turned a difficult score into a win against Peter De Backer (40-34 in 36) and Wico van Wijk beat Berry Dallinga 40-30 in 27, but Dallinga came back to 4-4 thanks to wins by Jean Paul de Bruijn against Murat Gökmen (40-23 in 30) and by Steven van Acker against Kay de Zwart (40-29 in 29).
Dekker AP went on to win at Burgmans Biljarts (2-6) thanks partly to a strong Anno de Kleine against Dave Christiani (40-32 in 23) and Gerwin Valentijn, who won against Marco Janssen 40-22 in 27. Aartsbouw Sprundel and Team Nachtwacht, in the lower regions, shared the match points with Ronny Brants, the Belgian who has been in excellent form for a couple of weeks, being the best man. He beat Erwin Kivits 40-28 in 19. The brotherly battle, long awaited, between Frits Broeders and Ad Broeders ended in a win for Frits with 40-31 in 31.