SCHIJNDEL - The Cues&Darts team is going for its second Dutch cup in a row, Bousema is fighting for the first gold in the eastern team's cup history. The final, Saturday from 11am, promises to be a tough battle including Tayfun Tasdemir and Glenn Hofman as frontrunners. The Scotch double in case of a draw score in sets hasn’t yet to decide over win in this cup clash. The two semi-finals in the Dutch cup, played at Het Spectrum in Schijndel, ended in 6-2 victories for Bousema and Cues&Darts. Bousema eliminated Team Eekhoorn in a real thriller, in which Tayfun Tasdemir was the match winner against Nick Polychronopoulos 2-1 in sets and 15-13 in the decisive third set. Cues&Darts went to the final win against J&F Auto's, although Ruben Legazpi had to go deep in his match against Kay de Zwart: 2-1 and 15-12 in the final set.
Bousema laid the foundations for a win in the first leg, when Johan Loncelle was the winner 2-1 against Jerry Hermans (1.176 and 1.060) and Gökhan Salman had a better final sprint than Peter Ceulemans 2-1 (1.583 against 1.541). The standout moment in that match was a butage by Ceulemans in the closing stages which disrupted his focus and set Salman on his way to win.
With the 2-0 lead for Bousema, all eyes in the second game were on Eddy Leppens and Nick Polychronopoulos, who could still equalize for Eekhoorn. Leppens fulfilled that mission by beating Jorissen 2-0 (1.304/1.136). Polychronopoulos had prospects of winning against Tasdemir after 15-13 in the first set, but narrowly gave away the last two sets by 15-11 and 15-13 (Tasdemir 1.482, Polychronopoulos 1.392).
J&F Auto's, the relegator from the premier league, put up a good fight in the match against Cues&Darts. Most of all in the first half there were chances: Herman van Daalen won in a nice fight vs Joey de Kok (15-14 and 14-15 in the last two sets) and Paul Bruijstens was also close to a stunt against Jef Philipoom. The Dutchman started 15-13, but the Belgian cupfighter finished furiously 15-12 and 15-14.
That gave a draw score at the break with favorites Glenn Hofman and Ruben Legazpi. Hofman lived up to that expectation with a 2-0 win against Gökmen (1.428/0.700). Kay de Zwart unexpectedly had good chances against Legazpi: the Brabant player won the first set 15-9, surrendered the second 15-5 and only capitulated in the last inning of the decisive round 15-12 (averages 1.695/1.454).
The final is tomorrow, Saturday, over nine sets won. The players will enter four at a time, with the other four players following after two sets. That is how the match continues until one team has won 9 sets out of 15. In case of 8-8 score, a Scotch Double must decide the cup win.
Glenn Hofman
Gökhan Salman
Nick Polychronopoulos
Kay de Zwart
Eddy Leppens
Jef Philipoom