Cues&Darts the better of Eekhoorn in top match

OOSTERHOUT - One Oosterhout team continued its winning strike inexorably, including a win by Frédéric Caudron over Dick Jaspers. The other stronghold from the Oosterhout enclave suffered unexpected losses in the premier league sub-top match. For the first position in the rankings, Team Babbelz is as good as out of reach for Cues&Darts and now definitely for Team Eekhoorn. The leader has 31 out of 18, Cues&Darts follows with 25, Team Eekhoorn is chasing a nine points margin after Sunday's loss. Frédéric Caudron paved the way for the top formation with his second victory in this competition over Dick Jaspers: this time the score was 40-30 in 26 innings. Dion Nelin was the best winner for Babbelz with a generous 40-18 in 20 against a chance-less Anno de Kleine. Most notable result in this Kozoom league round was Sam van Etten's win against Tayfun Tasdemir, an undisputed world top player, beaten by the North Holland player 40-32 despite a come-back by Tasdemir in between with 13.

Two Dutch finalists in the Doetinchem Grand Prix on Saturday night were beaten by foreign players. Jaspers by Caudron, Glenn Hofman, many times portrayed as the crown prince of Dutch three-cushion tennis after his Grand Prix victory over Jaspers, did not have his dreaded final sprint on Sunday. The Hague player had Nick Polychronopoulos in the pincers early on with 17-6, led 24-11 at halfway, but lost his rhythm in the second part. The Greek took advantage, got to a favorable score for the first time at 28-26 and built that to 35-26 and 40-31 in 23 innings at the finish. That happened at the stage where Cues&Darts showed its mastery with 3 wins from 4.

Peter Ceulemans unexpectedly had to bow to Jef Philipoom (40-35 in 26) and Eddy Leppens, after a weak start, could not keep down his Korean colleague Robinson Morales: the Colombian won 40-32 in 22. Cues&Darts' third success came from Huub Wilkowski, who bossed Kurt Ceulemans.

Bousema was kept from winning by Sam van Etten (40-36 in 19 against Tasdemir) and Rik van Beers (40-32 in 32 against Jorissen). Martin Horn won in 19 innings vs Thorsten Frings, Johan Loncelle in 30 innings vs Francis Forton.

Dallinga, still not free of relegation worries, came back from visiting SIS/Vervoort with a surprising 3-5 win. Before the break, the match remained balanced, because Jean Paul de Bruijn bested Jean van Erp 40-37 in 24 (1.666 and 1.51) and Martien van der Spoel left two caroms for a win over Bart Ceulemans in an excellent match: 40-38 in 26. Peter De Backer turned the score in Sluiskil's favor after the break by beating Raymund Swertz 40-28 in 31. The important final point came from Steven van Acker: the Belgian finished the match against Raimond Burgman, who scored three times for a draw. The good news for SIS was that the sponsor and the team will continue for another year.

Aartsbouw trumped J&F Auto's by generous scores and a 7-1 final score. Eddy Merckx played a sovereign match against Murat Gökmen, who had an off-day: 40-14 in 17. Paul Bruijstens and Allan Schröder drew in 45 innings.

J&F Auto's is only 1 point away from the second relegation spot after Sunday's loss.

The standings at the top after 18 matches:

1. Team Babbelz 31
2. Cues&Darts 25
3. STZ Zundert 23
4. Team Eekhoorn 22
5. Bousema 20
6. Nieuwegein 20
7. Aartsbouw19