THE HAGUE - The title chances for the Hague billiard team SIS Schoonmaak, that entered the play-offs for the Dutch league after a strong competition, are reduced to zero. The clash between SIS and the Brabant team of L&B turned into a deception for the defending champion. The L&B team won the home match 6-2, the score in the return in The Hague was 4-4. Eddy Merckx and Peter De Backer were the stars in the winning team from Hoeven.
The other finalist in the battle for the title will be known tonight, Sunday. STZ Zundert and Bousema Lochem meet each other starting at 6:30 tonight, after the first match ended in 4-4. The winner of this match faces L&B on June 7th and 8th for the Dutch championship.
The Hague SIS Schoonmaak, which has been all the way at the top of the competition, ends the play-offs in a minor. L&B overpowered the outgoing champion both in the competition and the cup, because the Hague team was also eliminated by L&B in the cup qualifications. The difference between the two teams was made by the leading players. Eddy Merckx and Peter De Backer both won the double against Glenn Hofman and Raimond Burgman. For the Hague team, Jean van Erp remained in balance with Dave Christiani and Jeffrey Jorissen won twice against John Tijssens.
The leader of the Hague team, Glenn Hofman, went down and out in the double encounter against the player who will be the new leader of SIS Schoonmaak in his place next year. Eddy Merckx was a way too strong for Hofman on all fronts. In Hoeven, the score was 40-23 in 23 innings, in The Hague the punishment was even more painful: Merckx won 40-18 in 25 innings. Raimond Burgman lost twice to a very strong Peter De Backer, who played the best average over two games of the eight players (2.051). Glenn Hofman was strangely the worst on average of the eight players (0.854). Eddy Merckx was the double winner with 1.666, Burgman and Jorissen achieved averages of 1.641 and 1.454.
The tension after the 6-2 victory in Hoeven came back for a while in the return, when Jeffrey Jorissen again won his match vs John Tijssens (40-29 in 26) and Jean van Erp was the better of Dave Christiani on one carom (40-39 in 19). The hope for recovery was quickly disrupted after the break, because Merckx was much stronger than Hofman and De Backer won the match with Burgman (40-36 in 19).
Tonight's match between STZ Zundert and Bousema Lochem will be broadcast live on Kozoom. The matches are:
6:30pm
Rik van Beers-Frans van Schaik
Barry van Beers-Wesley de Jaeger
8:30pm
Peter Ceulemans-Johan Loncelle
Roland Forthomme-Stefan Galla