MAGDEBURG - Dick Jaspers has played the best match in his entire career today, Saturday, in the German league. The Dutchman equaled the world's best match over 40 caroms: he defeated German Stefan Galla 40-9 in 6 innings. The record was in the hands of Frédéric Caudron (twice), Marco Zanetti and Haeng Jik Kim.
,,I could have been the only record holder'', realized Jaspers after the match. ,,My last carom, in the fifth inning, was actually pretty easy. It was the ideal position to finish. I hit the object ball thin, but with a little too much English: my ball came a little too long out of the corner.''
,,That was not my best shot, but before in the match, I did nothing wrong. The balls were very friendly to me. I started with 6, then 8, 3, then a good 12 and 10 in the fifth inning, bringing me one point away from the finish. But then I missed, unfortunately. I was satisfied for my performance, of course. I scored a few times in a difficult position, but the Gabriels table in Magdeburg are fantastic and I know them very well.''
For a small audience, this Saturday, history was written in the Bundesliga. ,,We play in a small club with a real billiard atmosphere, unfortunately there are not so many people to watch the matches.'' BC Magdeburg won the home match, played for the fourth round, against GT Buer 6-2. ,,We are in the middle of the ranking, with two wins, one loss and one draw.''
The match in six innings was his best ever. ,,In the Grand Prix in Rosmalen, last year, I finished 40 in seven innings. And I think I played five or six times 40 in eight innings, including the World Cup final in Luxor last year.'' Jaspers doesn't draw conclusions after the top match. ,,I'm not saying that this is the right moment before the World Cup in La Baule and the World championship in Bordeaux. This means nothing. You play a crazy match, but the next can be very bad. Maybe, it would be better to play a bad one just before a tournament, haha.''
Tomorrow (Sunday), Jaspers plays for the Magdeburg team against Bottrop: Christian Rudolph is his opponents. Jaspers misses the match for Prinsen in the Dutch league, the Buffalo league.
BC Munich continues to top the bundesliga with the maximum of ten points out of five games. The leading team won the home match against Velbert 8-0, among others by victories of Lütfi Cenet in 18, Kostas Papakonstantinou in 27 and Johann Schirmbrand in 23 innings.
Bergisch Gladbach and BC Elversberg came to a draw. Nikos Polychronopoulos won the match on center court against Frédéric Caudron 40-20 in fifteen innings. Carsten Raspel defeated Volker Marx 40-29 in 36. BC Elversberg winners were Jef Philipoom, against Dave Christiani (40-31 in 31) and Bernard Klaus Bosel took victory by one point against Jens Eggers.
BC Witten and Bottrop also played 4-4. Eddy Leppens bested Christian Rudolph 40-29 in 24, Jean van Erp defeated Savas Bulut 40-31 in 24. Ronny Lindemann was the better of Anno de Kleine (40-31 in 27), but Dustin Jäschke defeated Hans Jurgen Kuhl 40-27 in 27.