UTRECHT - No two days are the same, and two three cushion matches certainly are not. Dave Christiani and Glenn Hofman underlined that when they met in today's eredivisie. The player from the Hague won the Grand Prix in Oosterhout yesterday, when he beat Dick Jaspers in the final. Dave Christiani had no chance against that same Jaspers in the semi, when he could not make anything in the second half of the match. On Sunday, both their teams Buffalo.nl and Eureka Billiards met, with Christiani and Hofman as lead players. Christiani saw his opponent start with six open innings, and took a quick 12-0 lead. ,,From that point, I left him with many broken and nasty positions, which enabled me to win rather comfortably, 40-25 in 22 innings. That is billiards, we all know it. One day it rolls for you, the other day it doesn't.'' Eureka won the top match in Maarssen 6-2.
Dave Christiani is, never mind that one poor match against Jaspers, in excellent form. ,,I have worked hard on my stroke and focus, this summer. It is good to see the rewards of that work.''
What does mean: to work on stroke and focus? Dave: ,,I have practiced by myself, because I already know where I go wrong and I've tried to correct myself. But also, I talk to people, to other players. You can always learn from others.''
Christiani is happy to be the lead player of his team, and to have made a good start to the league season. Dave: ,,It is nice to be able to take the nr. 1 spot in a new team, and then start off like this.'' Can you see Eureka as a contender for the top positions? Dave: ,,No, that is too early, the season is long. But we have made a good start and we are happy with every victory.''
Eureka Billard, a new name in the league, did well in the first three weeks. They added a 6-2 win today, because Jean van Erp defended champion Buffalo's honor by beating Raimond Burgman 40-32 in 25. John Tijssens bested Jeffrey Jorissen 40-28 in 38, Henk Habraken won a laborious encounter with Herman van Daalen 40-30 in 50.
Eureka Billard took the table lead after day three, because STZ Zundert lost a valuable point against Eekhoorn. The match between Kurt Ceulemans and Peter Ceulemans was crucial: Kurt, who had just had a hectic weekend in Lier, won 40-37 in 26. Roland Forthomme played the best match of that meeting, when he beat Frans van Kuyk 40-21 in 22 innings. Jerry Hermans showed how well he is currently playing when he walked all over Raymon Groot: 40-14 in 28.
Dallinga had to play catch up in their away game against TOVV/Royal Pro, after Steven van Acker had lost to Frans van Schaik (40-15 in 27) and Patrick Vasseur to Richard Bitalis (40-36 in 31). The two team stars set things straight: Caudron against Spoormans (40-22 in 16, best match of the eredivisie round), De Bruijn with a bad start but excellent recovery against Sciacca: 40-25 in 18.
Dinand Prinsen finally had a reason to smile about his team, that had started the season poorly. His foursome, headed by Dick Jaspers, booked the first win, helped by a high quality win from Raymund Swertz, who gave Ad Broeders something to think about: 40-24 in 21. The balkline specialist explained as follows: "Two weeks off, and no balkline practice, just 3-cushion. I can feel what it does for my stroke, and it's great to play like that.''
Dick Jaspers, who admits that he is struggling a bit in his own country at the moment, was at some point the lowest averaging player of the four. He did beat Davy van Havere, 40-21 in 33. Anno de Kleine looked at a 13-31 backlog against Frank Martens, but he repaired the damage and won 40-35 in 23. Jelle Pijl was way too strong for Ad Koorevaar: 40-19 in 22.
A1 Biljarts booked the smallest possible victory (5-3) against Bousema Lochem, that still had a 3-1 lead at halftime. Therese Klompenhouwer had beaten Gerwin Valentijn (40-32 in 46), and Spilleman drew 40-40 with Van der Spoel. Eddy Merckx and Addy Wienk pulled A1 over the top, when they beat Wesley de Jaeger and Ronny Hazewinkel.
Bert van Manen was Saturday evening's stunt man, when he played with Burgmans Biljarts against TOVV2. He was heard saying he played like crap in the first half of the match against Ronny Daniels, but his explosive run of fifteen was too much for the Belgian (40-33 in 40). ,,The sixteenth was very difficult and I could not have hit it any better, but I was kissed out.'' The hard fought 40-39 of Johan Roijers against Kay de Zwart (in 42) and Rik van Beers 40-40 against Kostas Kokkoris (in 36) gave the debutant a 5-3 win: Birol Uymaz was the only winner for TOVV: 40-19 in 28 against Marco Janssen.