SLUISKIL – The top four in the Dutch three-cushion league, in the battle for four spots in the play-offs, have changed positions. Dallinga won the home match over Bousema by a wide margin this Sunday afternoon (7-1) and climbed sovereignly to a shared third place in the Kozoom league standings. Cues&Darts seized the top spot with a 6-2 victory over Aartsbouw. In the top four, Team Eekhoorn dropped a valuable point against SIS Vervoort.
The headliners of the 18th round were Dick Jaspers with an impressive 40 in 13 and Jean Paul de Bruijn with 40 in 14. That victory by the Zeeland- captain determined the final score in the top match between Dallinga and Bousema, which ended in a 7-1 victory for Dallinga. De Bruijn delivered a great performance against Tayfun Tasdemir. The Turk stood no chance; De Bruijn won 40-19. For Bousema, the the low score from the captain hit hard, as Steven van Acker defeated Johan Loncelle (40-37 in 27 innings) and Berry Dallinga won against Frans van Schaik (40-36 in 20 innings) in a hard-fought match. The Zeeland hotel owner demonstrated top form in a match with a two-average score. The score even rose to 7-1, because Peter De Backer and Jeffrey Jorissen drew in 34 innings.
With the crucial final weeks in sight, the Zeeland team has started a strong final sprint. Jean Paul de Bruijn was the star in the team, which will play primarily with young players out of Zeeland next season. Dallinga is now even tied for third place with Eekhoorn. That is a great prospect for the potential sponsors who will be called upon in two weeks to give the 'Zeeland team' a further boost.
Cues&Darts and Aartsbouw are out of reach and are battling it out for the top spots. Dallinga and Eekhoorn can only play a role in that in the best-case scenario. Bousema has worked himself into a precarious position due to the loss against Dallinga.
Cues&Darts won the top match against Aartsbouw thanks to victories by Ruben Legazpi, Jef Philipoom and Huub Wilkowski. The only winner for Aartsbouw was Eddy Merckx, who defeated Glenn Hofman 40-36 in 24 innings. Huub Wilkowski was an excellent winner against Alan Schröder in 22 innings (40-28), Legazpi was the better of Orak with 40-20 in 24, and Jef Philipoom defeated Barry van Beers 40-33 in 31.
In the lower regions, Paperclip further distanced itself from Burgmans Biljarts by a 6-2 victory. The most notable match was Dick Jaspers gamw against Davy van Havere, which ended 40-20 in 13 innings with a run of 11 for the winner. The other winners for Paperclip were Cédric Melnytschenko and Dan Breur. Bart Ceulemans was the only one to win for Burgmans, defeating Anno de Kleine 40-39.
SIS Vervoort held Team Eekhoorn to a 4-4 draw in one of the team's final home matches in the league. Peter and Kurt Ceulemans salvaged a point for Eekhoorn with wins over Raimond Burgman and Harrie van de Ven. For Sis, Jean van Erp was the better of Nick Polychronopoulos (40-35 in 12 innings) and Martien van der Spoel beat Frans van Kuyk 40-34 in 35 innings.
Van Baal scraped through in the away match against Harwig. Andreas Niehaus shone for Harwig with a victory over Sam van Etten (40-16 in 16 innings). Roland Uijtdewillegen was the best winner for Van Baal against Rob Lamboo 40-34 in 27 innings. Francis Forton's draw against Theo Moes in 46 innings secured Van Baal the 5-3 win.
The schedule for the final intermediate round before the double final weekend:
April 26:
Cues&Darts-Dallinga
RCN-Bousema
Eekhoorn-Paperclip
Van Baal-Burgmans
Harwig-SIS
Standings at the top:
1 Cues&Darts 18-28
2 Aartsbouw 18-25
3 Dallinga 18-23
4 Eekhoorn 17-22
5 Bousema 17-20
6 SIS 17-17.