MAGDEBURG - The double weekend in the German bundesliga held the top three unchanged: Bergisch Gladbach lost the top match against BC Magdeburg 6-2, but on Sunday, the Magdeburg team made a misstep itself against BC Elversberg (2-6). Therefor Bergisch Gladbach remains on top with 22 points ahead of BC Munich with 23 and BC Magdeburg, that played one match more, with 22 points. Bergisch recorded a new bundesliga record team average on Sunday: 2.051.
Dick Jaspers, the form horse of the year-start, was the high flyer of the weekend, tackling his match with a 40-17 victory in eight innings over Martin Horn, making 5.000 average. Dion Nelin defeated Nikos Polychronopoulos 40-30 in 24 and sparkled on Sunday against Frédéric Caudron with a gorgeous win 40-19 in 11 innings after a start with 5, 4 and 14. Anno de Kleine had a strong weekend with a gain in thirteen innings and Michael Nilsson showed a great form against Markus Schönhoff with a win (40-19) in 14 innings.
In short, it was a fabulous weekend in the bundesliga, where the match between BC Magdeburg and Bergisch Gladbach was important for the outcome of the title race. Torbjörn Blomdahl was missing in the team of Bergisch because of his performance in the Supercup in Antwerp. Martin Horn was the lead player, but he bumped to an incredible strong Jaspers. Dion Nelin defeated Nikos Polychronopoulos and Christian Zöllner won the third match against Thomas Horcher 40-19 in 45, good for the 6-2 victory of Magdeburg.
The pursuers in the ranking, aiming for a podium berth, crossed swords one day later with BC Elversberg in an attempt to improve their title chances. But only Dion Nelin, who played a majestic match against Caudron, could win his match for Magdeburg. The other three matches were lost: Nilsson grandly took the win against Schönhoff, Klaus-Bernard Bosel against Zöllner and Volker Marx vs Radek Novak.
Bergisch recovered one day later from the loss on Saturday and defeated BCC Witten 8-0 without being in trouble. Torbjörn Blomdahl was the best winner against Savas Bulut (40-32 in 15), Martin Horn bested Ronny Lindemann in 20 innings (40-33), Nikos Polychronopoulos got the better of Kenny Miatton (40-27 in 19) and Jens Eggers defeated Volker Baten (40-17 in 24).
Marco Zanetti (BC Munich) tortured the reigning champion Ravensburg (8-0) and played himself a match in twenty innings. GT Buer defeated Sterkrade 6-2 with a win for Stefan and Markus Galla in 26 and 30 innings. BC Witten and BC Elversberg played a tie on Saturday. Frédéric Caudron won the Belgian clash against Eddy Leppens 40-35 in 18. Savas Bulut beat Michael Nilsson 40-38 in 22.
On Sunday, GT Buer played a draw against Krefeld with a nice victory of Wesley Jaeger against Stefan Hetzel (40-24 in 22). Bottroper defeated Sterkrade 8-0.
Dion Nelin after a blistering start to 40-19 win (11 innings) against Frédéric Caudron